JFK Assassination Songs

54 thoughts on “JFK Assassination Songs”

1. The Avengers “The Amerikan in Me”. San Francisco 1978
   “It’s the American in me that makes me watch the blood running out of a bullet hole in his head”
   “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country’s been doing to you.”

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   • Thanks. I added “The American in Me”

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   • “Coma White” Marilyn Manson

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     • OK, I’ll expand the list to include “Coma White”. The song has nothing to do with the JFK assassination, but the video includes (overwrought) imagery from the JFK assassination. But since I included “Coma White” I also added “Window Seat” by Erykah Badu. Like “Coma White”, “Window Seat” has nothing to do with JFK but Erykah Badu filmed the video in Dealey Plaza. In the video she walks JFK’s motorcade route through Dealey Plaza and takes off her clothes along the way. Erykah Badu was charged with disorderly conduct and paid a $500 fine with 6 months probation for this little bit of guerrilla theater.

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       • He started investigating JFK themes on the Mechanical Animals album, but Manson’s entire Holy Wood album (the one after Mechanical Animals) is based on JFK assassination/conspiracy imagery.

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   • What about “Foreign Policy” by The Buckinghams? It has snippets of JFK speeches throughout. It was the B-side of “Susan” on the original 45rpm.

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     • This one is iffy but I added it to the list. Even though the assassination isn’t mentioned it still comes to mind when you’re listening to the song. Thanks for the suggestion.

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2. Kennedy the wedding presents

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   • Thanks. I should have thought of this one. I’ve added it to the list.

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3. Thanks for this – I’m currently compiling a Top Ten JFK Songs for my own blog, so it came in very handy. Others you might consider…

   Okkervil River – The President’s Dead

   Manic Street Preachers – I’m Just A Patsy

   Bromhead’s Jacket – JFK Vs. USA

   Magazine – Motorcade

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   • Thanks for the suggestions. I have added all of them to the list. I had “Motorcade” on an earlier version of the list but took it off when I read that Howard Devoto had denied that the song had any connection to the JFK assassination (apparently this is in the liner notes to the 2008 reissue of Real Life but I have not seen this myself). After thinking about it I decided to include “Motorcade” since I have “Peter Pumpkinhead” on the list, which has a similar sort of theme to it plus JFK-denial by Andy Partridge. The lyrics are general enough to include on this list.

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4. Fantastic list! Good to see my New Mexico friend Boris McCutcheon in here with his cover of “Lee Harvey.” (along with the takes by T. Tex Edwards and The Rockin’ Guys, who call it “H.O. Lee”) One big omission though: The Asylum Street Spankers’ cover of that same Homer Henderson classic.That’s the first version I’d ever heard. It’s on their 1996 album SPANKS FOR THE MEMORIES. Here’s a YouTube of a live version by The Spankers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJjsiMrgIY

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   • Thanks for letting me know about this one. I just downloaded it from Bandcamp (http://asylumstreetspankers.bandcamp.com/track/lee-harvey). It seems everyone who records this song has to retitle it somehow!

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5. Wow. I am takiing an excellent course on Coursera – “Songwriting”, taught by Pat Pattison of Berklee School of Music (highly recommend, its Free!). This week, we will “put it all together” and write a complete song and post to soundcloud. Well, since I was 9 years old when JFK was shot, and have been fixated (family says obsessed) off and on by the assasination since, I thought, OK write about that! So, I decided to search to see if anything (song) had been written on the subject. Little did I know! Glad I found this site, will return. You should add “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. I also found several obscure ones titled “Ballad of JFK” – by “Hayes and Wammack” and also by Alex Harvey & Jimmie Grimes, also by Charles Deemer (went on to become an author and playwright and professor at Portland State University).

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   • Interesting suggestions. “The Sound of Silence” is marginal but is mentioned often enough in discussions of music inspired by the JFK assassination that I’ll add it to the list.

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6. Hi, Please may I bring to you attention my tribute song that I have released this year. I have had good feedback about this whilst performing it in the UK this year, and am excited to perform it again as part of my next gig on 30th November, in a church so the acoustics should be great!

   I hope you enjoy it, and please share it with anyone who may appreciate it….

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QijfVnX7u6Q

   Best wishes, Tiffany.

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   • I added “JFK” to the list.

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7. Fantastic list! I didn’t see Peter Gabriel’s “Family Snapshot,” which includes some JFK-assassination imagery (though it’s actually about a different assassination). Judgement call as to whether you’d want to include it. Also, would Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” count? It references Kennedy (and even includes a sample of his “Ask not…” speech), but it is not specifically about the assassination. Again, these are just suggestions. Your list is truly impressive.

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9. I’ve got three more for you:

   1. Sixth Floor by Spirit of the West

   “At the corner of Elm and Northeast Houston
   Staring up at the Southeast window
   Someone circled allegedly
   I refuse to pay six bucks to see”

   2. The Truth About Us by The Skydiggers

   “Ah Marina, Marina, it’s sad and it’s lonely,
   when you’re pointing the gun at the president
   I’m a flunky with a rifle, I’m an NRA golden boy
   a genius forging a legend”

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI7XUrLnClA

   3. She Is Always Seventeen by Harry Chapin

   “It was nineteen sixty-one when we went to Washington;
   She put her arms around me and said, “Camelot’s begun.”

   We listened to his visions of how our land should be;
   We gave him our hearts and minds to send across the sea.
   Nineteen sixty-three, white and black upon the land;
   She brought me to the monuments and made us all join hands.

   And scarcely six months later she held me through the night
   When we heard what had happened in that brutal Dallas light.”

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   • Here’s an audio link for the Spirit of the West track.

     http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Sixth+Floor/2DyoGz?src=5

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   • All great. Added to the list. Thank you.

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10. I got this and nothing more:

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12. What a great resource this page is! Here’s one you missed from the Boston punk band, Last Stand:

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    • Love finding obscurities like this. Thanks very much. I remember listening to a few Taang! releases around that time but I missed this one.

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      • You’re welcome. P.S. I just hosted a two hour radio show focused on this theme: http://www.track-blaster.com/wmbr/playlist.php?id=14807

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13. I posted this comment under yours over at my CompVid101 site but wanted to be sure you saw it, so cross posting here as well –

    Very well said -and I am delighted to have you stop by and comment. I hope it’s clear that I truly appreciate the work you’ve done to assemble the list, and I explored many of the links to the blog and your notes on the album.

    I saw the Post-Gazette article and the CBS News article about “Silence” being inducted (properly and astoundingly late) into the National Recording Registry. It may well be that both the news sources and your reader couldn’t find a context within which to understand Simon and just glommed onto the assassination.
    …and I was going to post to your site this evening with suggestions of the Stewart songs, so I’m happy you found this. Looking forward to many a happy hour broadening my education by looking into some of the indie bands I don’t know and the unfamiliar music from those that I do.

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14. While you have Crucifixion by Phil Ochs, you neglected his “That Was The President” from the “I Ain’t marching Anymore” album.

    Youtube link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAI6OewUVGE

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15. The Ballad of John F Kennedy b Tom Magera at the Kay Bank Recording Co. in Minneapolis in 1964. The song was taped st WNAX in Yankton SD .Magera and his wife took the. tape to Minnesota to’cut the record’. The records were distributed in their hometown Scotland SD and in Yankton SD in May 1964

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    • Magera slso wrote and recorded Eternal Light and taped and recorded it along with Ballad. both songs have. ‘Ask not what your country can do for you..”

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16. this was veery helpful!

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17. Do you haveLana del Rey “JFK” (unreleased) ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wa9y21uLY

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18. I still insist that Bob Dylan’s “Series of Dreams” makes an oblique reference to the JFK assassination in the line “…Dreams where the umbrella is folded…”

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20. PLEASE HELP>>> I heard a song once, and I believe is had to do with jfk’s assassination. I believe it was sung by a lady. But it was more about the funeral and Jackie and the kids. I remember parts of the song. something about the horse(not sure of the color, or if they were pulling the coffin) and about Jackie keeping her head up? the singer was in the front yard of their home and mom was watching it on the news?

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21. “He Was a Friend of Mine” (The Byrds, from the “Turn, Turn, Turn” LP, circa 1965)

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22. Hi Todd,
    I recently found that live365 is finally down, what a shame, I can freaking believe it. Should you have any plans for taking Turn me on, dead man to another site, please let us know.

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    • Hey, nevermind. I found the player I was looking for.

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    • Ok, I think I wasn’t that wrong after all. I mean, I found the station at radionomy, which sucks because I’ve found myself listening to some tracks you would never play at live365, so I ask, do you have any plans for taking Turn me on, dead man to a site you can play your playlist without having to play lousy ‘lounge’ tracks?

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25. How could you miss John Wesley Harding’s “The Devil In Me”? It’s first line is:
    A shotgun and Kennedy
    In Dallas in ’63

    I should know, being named after a Peter Sellers gag and all.

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26. There was a song by I believe a man made in 1963 or 64 titled Mr. Kennedy! I believe he was a black artist!!

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28. Another one:

    Shellac – “Canaveral”

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29. Hi, I think “I’m juste a patsy” from The manic street preachers should be added to this very comprehensive list. Great job!

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30. I believe one or two RATM songs reference JFK. Ill try to find them.

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31. FWIW, it seems that “Homenaje a J. F. Kennedy” is one of *dozens* of corridos about the killing of JFK —

    http://frontera.library.ucla.edu/blog/2018/06/kennedy-corridos-tragedy-revives-genre

    https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/arhoolie/ARH00367.pdf

    https://www.worldcat.org/title/kennedy-corridos-a-study-of-the-ballads-of-a-mexican-american-hero/oclc/5574918

    At which point my Spanish and research skills end.

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32. Pingback: JFK Assassination Song: “The Motorcade Sped On” by Steinski | 1960s: Days of Rage

33. Six White Horses by Tommy Cash — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJPuAKov2eU

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    • Thank you.

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