On August 1, 1966, a man named climbed, unobserved, into the tower of the University of Texas in Austin. Over an hour and a half, he shot at many people, killing 14 people, and the fetus of one of those women, who was pregnant. He wounded 31 others. He was shot and killed by police. Harry Chapin later wrote the song above, "Sniper," about the mass killings, something which was nearly unheard of in that era. This is probably the single most intense song I've ever heard in my life.
Many things inspire works of art. Tragedies, both personal, and catastrophic events involving groups of people, have always been a source of inspiration for artists throughout history. Here are a few pieces of art inspired by tragedy, at a time when the world witnessed the effects of one tragic attack on civilians, on TV and social media, and what may turn into a much larger civilian tragedy emerging in retaliation. As a 75 year period of strife once again flames up into warfare in the Middle East, people there, and around the world, struggle to cope with all kinds of traumatic events.
There are many ways to grieve, cope, and try to deal with the wide varieties of tragedy we see, feel, and experience in life. Creating art is one way to both work through the trauma of tragedy, and also to remind other people, in real time, and in the future, of the darkest events that human beings are capable of.
Personally, I'm shifting towards writing more about writing, drawing, art, and creativity itself, ideas from my own weird, path of coming to grips with the urge to make art and write down ideas. The events we've all seen this past week led me to the idea for this post, to look at some works of art that were inspired tragic events.
The song "Amazing Grace," sung here by the Gospel Touch Choir, has been a standard in churches across Christianity for over 150 years in the United States. It was written in 1772 by an English pastor named John Newton. Newton was a former slave ship captain. He saw, and was an active part of, the worst aspects of slavery. Newton was even held as a slave himself, for a time, off the African coast. After a storm nearly sank his ship, while still in his 20's, he turned his life around. This 14 minute documentary tells the story of the song, "Amazing Grace." The tune we are most familiar with now is not the original music for of the song. It may have come from a type of Scottish folk song. Here's "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. If you have ten minutes, good headphones, and really want to hear the true power of music, listen to this version sung by Aretha Franklin from 1972.
In 1983, the young band U2 had a big hit with the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," another song inspired by a tragedy. For most of the 20th century, some groups of Irish wanted to become independent from British rule. Other Irish people wanted to stay a part of the U.K.. This led to decades of trouble in Ireland, attacks, car bombs, and religious tensions. On January 30, 1972, during an Irish catholic march for freedom and civil rights, in Londonderry, British troops ended up shooting at protestors. Thirteen protestors were killed in by the troops, and several more were injured. A 14th protestor died several months later from the injuries of that day. That event inspired U2 to write the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" years later. This short video explains the main events of January 30, 1972.
Guernica, the painting by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso created well over 1,000 works of art in his life. The best known work, to most people, is a huge painting called "Guernica." The painting is 4 meters by 8 meters, about 11 feet tall by 26 feet long, to us Americans who don't use the metric system. On April 26, 1937, the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, was hit by an air raid, the first time of a large air raid on a civilian population. An estimated 300 people were killed in the bombing, and as many as 1,700 later died from injuries from the attack. This short documentary tells the story of Picasso and the painting of Guernica.
In 1979, the band The Boomtown Rats put out a single called called "I Don't Like Mondays," which went on to become their biggest hit. The song was inspired by a mass shooting in January of 1979, where a 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, shot at several people, in a school near San Diego, California. She killed the head teacher, and wounded 8 children and a police officer. When asked why she did it, Brenda said, "I don't like Mondays, this livens up the day" This short video tells the basic details of that shooting. Brenda Spencer is still in prison for her crimes, and her next parole hearing is in 2025.
The song "Strange Fruit" was made famous by singer African American singer Billie Holiday, who was known for singing the classic ballads and standards of the early and mid 20th century. The song was written as a poem by Abel Meeropol, in 1937, and was inspired by the lynching of black men in the United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's, primarily in southern states. It was a photo of a lynching that took place in Marion, Indiana in 1930, that sparked Abel to write the poem. He put it to music, and his wife sang it as a protest song at times. In 1939, the well known, talented Billie Holiday recorded it. This really spread the haunting song to a much larger audience, and it became a part of the growing civil rights movement for Black American, then usually referred to as Negroes. This news segment tells the story of the song.
Probably the most famous historical painting in the United States, the 1850 work, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," is known to school children and adults from American history classes. General Washington's revolutionary army had lost 80% to 90% of its forces, and was on the run from the British, in the weeks leading up to the famous crossing. The troops were tired, low on supplies, and battling the cold weather, and a better trained British army, along with German Hessian troops, mercenaries brought in and paid for by the British. Things were looking really grim for the struggling colonial army. Washington made a big bet by crossing the Delaware river at night, on Christmas night, 1776. They moved in the early morning down to Trenton, and attacked a group of Hessian soldiers stationed there, surprising them and achieving a victory. This helped raise morale of the colonial army under Washington, and became a turning point in our Revolutionary War. Though this scene has been painted multiple times, the 1851 painting by German American artist Emanuel Leutze became the iconic image of the dangerous river crossing.
On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. The crashed killed three young rock n' roll stars on board, J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the planes pilot. They were three of the biggest names in the young music movement of rock 'n roll, at the time. Inspired by the airplane crash, in 1971, singer/songwriter Don McClean released the song "American Pie." In this news segment, he tells some of the story behind the iconic song. The early lines of the song reference Don reading about the tragic plane crash, which became known as "the day the music died," in the newspapers. Don was 13, and a big fan of Buddy Holly, at the time. Years later he put it all together in the 8 1/2 minute song that has been heard by millions since, and became an iconic song in American rock music.
These are just a few works of art, songs and paintings, that have been inspired by some tragic events. But to many people reading this, these works are all from decades ago, are people still creating art and music inspired by terrible events. Yes, of course.
This kid goes by the name MC Abdul, and this song is called "The Pen & the Sword," and it's about the thirst for education among kids like him.
This video has serious production quality, so he had some help putting this video together. MC Abdul lives in a Palestinian region, I think the Gaza Strip, in Israel. He puts his thoughts and feelings into his raps, and he's been doing this for more than two years. This video is dated from about mid September 2023, about three weeks before the current war started in the region. Here's another video he put out, two years ago, which is much more low budget and raw. This is an amazing piece by a 12-year-old. "Shouting at The Wall."
There are a lot of reasons to write, rap, play instruments, paint, sculpt, design, or do any kind of artistic work. Getting through the tough times in your own life, working through the things that trouble you, whatever kind of trouble it is, is one great reason to focus on creative work.
I'm doing most of my new writing on Substack now, check it out.
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