Music hasn’t caught up with women’s equality, at least if you measure that by songs about famous and inspiring women. So GreenBookofSongs.com® has compiled this list of songs for Women’s History Month, representing the stories of five great women who deserve to be heralded in song.

• Clara Barton Country Joe McDonald; Thank The Nurse (Rag Baby).  Country Joe left politics out of this song about the famous Civil War nurse and humanitarian. He lets her heroism shine — whether reuniting families torn by the war, or in her later years, when she helped establish the American Red Cross. Click here to listen to a sample on Amazon.com.
• Eleanor Jonathan Sprout; More American Heroes (Sprout).  Sprout has written many children’s songs about American heroes, none better than this tribute to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who worked tirelessly to help others. Click here to listen to a sample on Amazon.com.
• Song For Rachel Walkin’ Jim Stoltz; Little Piece Of Earth (Wild Wind).  Folk singer Stoltz dedicated this song to Rachel Carson, an environmentalist whose book “Silent Spring” warned of the dangers of pesticides to the birds that herald spring. Click here to listen to a sample on Stoltz’s website
• True Story Of Amelia Earhart Plainsong; Plainsong (Water).  This aviation pioneer logged a lifetime of firsts. She was, for example, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Both her courageous life and her tragic death are captured in this song. Click here to listen to a sample on Amazon.com.
• Who’s The Best Female Pitcher Phil Coley; Sports Songs And Beyond (King Of The Road Music).  Did you know that a 17-year-old female pitcher named Jackie Mitchell struck out the mighty Babe Ruth? AND the great Lou Gehrig? This little-known athlete will be an inspiration to anyone who’s ever thrown a ball. Click here to listen to a sample on Amazon.com.  

See the GreenBookofSongs.com® category Feminism for more songs about women heroes!

Read Me Week is an effort sponsored by the Tennessee non-profit Book ‘Em. The group’s goal is to provide books to lower-income children and teens and promote the joy of reading. You can learn more about the group and Read Me Week here.

In support of Read Me Week, GreenBookofSongs.com® selected the following songs from a list of 200 in our category Storybook Characters. Each song refers to a book or story young people may enjoy reading! Get them ready for book time with one of these:

• Beauty And The Beast Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson; ST/Beauty And The Beast (Disney)
• Hey Nancy Drew L Price; ST/Nancy Drew-Music From The Motion Picture (Bulletproof)
• I’ve Gotta Crow Original Cast/Mary Martin; Peter Pan-The 1954 Broadway Production (RCA Victor)
• House At Pooh Corner Loggins & Messina; The Best Of Friends (Columbia)
• Love Story Taylor Swift; Fearless (Big Machine)
• Next Harry Potter Tommy Gardner; Kangaroo Waffles & Other Treasure (Blackwater)
• We’re Off To See The Wizard Original Cast; The Wizard Of Oz (TVT)  

You’ll find more songs about stories and characters in our categories Books, Books: Story Songs and Cartoon Characters.

Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday involves a focus on his goals and legacy rather than his death. Here are five songs from a variety of genres (Children’s, Reggae, Folk, Rock and Americana) that remind us of the dream he had for America and inspire us to continue on that path.

• Come By Here, Martin Luther King Kristen Lems
• Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Evan Belize
• No Easy Walk To Freedom Peter, Paul & Mary
• Pride (In The Name Of Love) U2
• Up To The Mountain (MLK Song) Patty Griffin

If you’re looking for a way to kick-start the new year, here’s a playlist for you! These songs are sure to get you motivated toward your goals, or at least give you energy to think about them.

SONGS FOR A NEW DECADE: Motivation for a New Beginning

Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In 5^th Dimension

Better Days Goo Goo Dolls

Let’s Get It Started Black Eyed Peas

Promise Of A New Day Paula Abdul

This Could Be The Start Of Something Big Tony Bennett

Happy New Year!

For this Veterans Day, we honor our soldiers with these songs from six American wars that reflect the experience of veterans and their loved ones.

• I Just Came Back From A War Darryl Worley [Iraq War]
• I’m In Korea J.B. Lenoir [Korean War]
• Over There Arthur Fields [World War I]
• Sarge Rick Lance [Vietnam War]
• Somebody’s Darling Kathy Mattea [Civil War]
• Sullivan Caroline’s Spine [WW II]

These songs were selected from GreenBookofSongs.com® categories including “Holidays: Memorial and Veterans Days”, specific and general “War” categories, and “Patriotism” and “Countries:  America”.

For Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins annually on September 15, GreenBookofSongs.com ® has selected five songs about famous Hispanics in history. While there are numerous leaders to choose from — elected officials, scientists, social activists, actors and musicians – we focused on heroes whose stories translate well into song.

Pancho Villa Billy Walker

Villa may have been a bandit before becoming a revolutionary leader, but Walker’s song sees him through the eyes of the Mexican villagers whose cause he championed: “He put down gold and silver, and food for us to eat / Said, ‘I didn’t come to harm you,’ and our hearts fell at his feet.”

Viva Zapata! Andy Irvine

You might not expect a Celtic folk singer to write a song of praise for a Mexican revolutionary, but Zapata’s commitment to the poor transcends such divisions. Using Zapata’s famous saying, Irvine captures his heroism well: “Isn’t it better to die on your feet than live upon your knees? / 400 years of bondage, that’s enough.”

Manos, Huesos Y Sang / Hands, Bones And Blood (Waltz For Frida Kahlo) Tish Hinojosa

Kahlo expressed through her brilliant art the tragedy of her life, marked by physical pain and heartbreak. Hinojosa portrays both the beauty and sorrow in this haunting song: “Thousand words painted by love’s broken stroke…Women would dream by your name.”

Picasso And Me Gretchen Peters

Picasso’s life included not just groundbreaking art but also many romantic partners, so it is fitting that Peters tells his story from a lover’s point of view. She watches him struggle with the conventional art world, which can’t yet grasp his genius: “Who made this game, who made these rules?…They’ll never understand him, they don’t know what I know.”

Roberto Clemente Phil Coley

The first Latin American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Clemente was also a humanitarian. He died tragically in a plane crash while delivering relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. This story song asks us to recognize both aspects of Clemente’s heroism: “He threw out runners from the outfield while on his knees / Though his right arm was great, honor all of him, please.”

On this anniversary of 9/11, we wanted to share with our educator subscribers a program designed to teach children about that tragic day. The September 11 Educational Program, located at LearnAbout9-11.org, uses a personal approach. It tells stories from the perspective of those whose lives were directly affected to give children a point of entry, a way of understanding an event many are too young to remember. The site offers discussion questions, a presentation, and other teaching tools.

GreenBookofSongs.com® has catalogued nearly 70 songs about 9/11, several of which use a similar story-telling approach to convey the sadness and shock that gripped us all. Here are three examples of songs that might be used in a classroom:

The Bravest Tom Paxton

This frequently political folk artist leaves politics aside in this song about a man who worked in the Twin Towers. He escapes down the stairs, hastened by firefighters making their way up. Saved by heroes who died, he attends their funerals to honor their sacrifice. “They must have seen it coming / When they turned to face the fire / They sent us down to safety / Then they kept on climbing higher.”

Let’s Roll Neil Young

On Flight 93, ordinary individuals took extraordinary actions, banding together to resist the terrorists who had hijacked their plane. Young speaks here as one of those passengers, who ends a cell phone call to his wife and turns toward an uninvited fight. “I know I said I love you / I know you know it’s true / I’ve got to put the phone down / And do what we got to do.”

Land Of The Living Lucy Kaplansky

This New York-based folk artist describes a different aspect of life in the city in the aftermath of the attacks. As fires continue to burn, she meets a Muslim taxi driver who has been beaten up in blind revenge. “I’m not one of them, no matter what they say / I’m just worried about my family / My wife’s in the house and she’s scared to leave.”

Find more in our category DANGER & DISASTER:  9-11-2001.

In the four years since Hurricane Katrina, we’ve catalogued more than 40 songs about the disaster and its aftermath. Artists of every genre have written about the storm and the suffering it caused.

On this anniversary, we look at three common ways that popular songs have told the story of Katrina: the personal, the political and the practical. The examples below range in focus from story-telling to political anger to survival.

1. The personal

Big Easy Raphael Saadiq

This is the tragedy of Katrina from the view of someone left to wonder whether his lover is dead or alive. He hasn’t seen her in two days; is she one of the many floating in the river? “Somebody please tell me what’s going wrong / They say them levees broke, and my baby’s gone.”

Any Other Day Wyclef Jean featuring Norah Jones

This heartbreaking cry for help vividly recalls the images we watched in horror on television: “I hear the engine on the boat / But y’all can’t see me waving the flag / Somebody please wave the flag.”

2. The political

Wide Awake Audioslave

Audioslave faults the government not only for failing those at home while fighting overseas, but also for placing the burden on America’s most vulnerable: “The poor and undefended left behind / While you’re somewhere trading lives for oil.”

Gov Did Nothin’ John Butler Trio

Similar themes here - a government distracted by war ignores the neediest as the death toll rises. The message of racial inequality is more clearly drawn: “Do you really think the gov would do nothin’ if all those people were white?”

 3. The practical

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On Jimmy Buffett

After the struggle of the storm came the struggle to go on. Buffett’s lyrics are for them: “Don’t try to explain it, just nod your head / Breathe in, breathe out, move on.”

Houston R.E.M.

Some have moved on, literally. This song is about relocating to Houston, ready or not. “And some things, they fall to the wayside / Their memory is yet to be still / Belief has not yet filled me / And so I am put to the test.”

There should be a fourth perspective here — songs of rebuilding and renewal. Maybe next year.

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund still needs your help!

Five Metal Songs of Nuclear Destruction

North Korea’s successful underground test of a nuclear weapon harkens chilling memories of the Cold War. As terrifying as the arms race was for the world, though, it was fodder for songwriters of all genres.

Not surprisingly, metal bands have excelled at painting bleak pictures of nuclear holocaust, full of accusation and admonishment. Here are five examples from the GreenBookofSongs.com® database:

Fight Fire With Fire Metallica

More than one Metallica song covers nuclear destruction. We open with this one because it’s so focused. It’s not about blame, it’s not about protest. The song is just about doom, and it won’t be pretty: “Soon to fill our lungs the hot winds of death / The gods are laughing, so take your last breath.”

Electric Funeral Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath gets graphic with a warning even warriors can’t ignore: “Buildings crashing down / To Earth’s crackling ground / Rivers turn to wood / Eyes melt into blood.” There’s no escape, and hell opens for those who destroyed the planet.

Final Six Slayer

Slayer is here to help everyone vividly imagine what Armageddon looks like. “A stream is poisoned by the dead / In the ghostly light debris of war.” And they know who’s responsible, too: “Mankind owes his pain to hell / As he brings the end upon himself.” Despite Biblical images, there’s no foisting blame on the devil for this.

When The Walls Came Tumbling Down Def Leppard

This song also wonders whether the end of the world is “the revenge of the gods” or “the aftermath of the radium bomb.” Maybe it’s both, because the result looks the same, with “tidal waves and open graves” as humanity’s fate.

One World Anthrax

After 9/11, this band’s name became anathema. But their message was actually anti-war in this Star Wars-era song. Russians are “only people like us” who “don’t love their lives less.” “Ignorance is no excuse for violence / No one wins.” Consider thrash metal the new instrument for peace!

The U.S. Labor Department reported last week that unemployment has climbed to 8.9% — much higher if you include those who have given up looking for work. Pretty bleak numbers, and of course, numbers don’t tell the story.

GreenBookofSongs.com® selected ten songs tell it all — the frustration, the anger, the despair. These songs reach all the way from the Great Depression to the current crisis, from steel mills and auto assembly lines to coal mines and farms, and show in ways statistics never can that some things about job loss are timeless.

10. Unemployment J.J. Cale

Just the bare basics of unemployment in this song — beating the pavement, compromising on pay, settling for any kind of honest work. “You won’t have to pay me overtime…You just tell me what time and where at.” First loss: expectations.

9. Allentown Billy Joel 

Factories close, young people move on, towns dissolve. As Joel puts it, “Every child had a pretty good shot / To get at least as far as their old man got / But something happened on the way to that place.” Casualty of hard times: the American Dream.

8.  Johnny 99 Bruce Springsteen

If we haven’t seen an increase in crime yet, maybe it’s coming. Springsteen’s protaganist can’t find a job, loses his home to the bank and has “debts no honest man could pay.” End result: acts of desperation that lead to jail.

7. Cafe On The Corner Sawyer Brown

“Johnny 99″ that crime doesn’t pay, but for the farmer in this song, ”Neither does farmin’ these days.” The local cafe is now staffed by men who long for the fields. People who lose careers may find other work, but the habits and rhythms of a lifetime are gone for good. Price paid: sense of belonging and place.

6. Computer Took My Job Maurice John Vaughn

When 20 years on the job are no match for a computer and “your best just ain’t good enough,” self-worth is compromised. This classic blues song makes the point that the unemployed aren’t asking for a handout — they just need a job. Wanted: self-respect.

5. Shuttin’ Detroit Down John Rich

Rich’s recent release speaks to the class antagonisms that result when “DC’s bailing out the bankers as the farmers auction ground,” and bosses collect bonuses while assembly lines grind to a halt. Another cost of unemployment: political unrest.

4. Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) Styx

This powerful song expresses not just the urgency of the job seeker — “Make me an offer that I can’t refuse / Make me respectable, man” — but also the raw determination to get out of the unemployment line, whatever the odds. It’s too close to desperation to be a  song of hope, but it’s got the essential American ingredient: refusal to quit.

3. Fred Jones Part 2 Ben Folds

This timely song about losing a newspaper job crystalizes that moment when it all slips away: “Twenty-five years he’s worked at the paper / A man’s here to take him downstairs / And I’m sorry, Mr. Jones, it’s time.” No party, no parting, just a box of belongings and an escort out of the building. The emotions of getting fired: shock and loss.

2. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime Bing Crosby

Perhaps the quintessential song of the Great Depression, these lyrics are the cry of a generation that raised skyscrapers, built railroads and won a World War, but found themselves left with breadlines and despair. “They used to tell me I was building a dream / With peace and glory ahead / Why should I be standing in line / Just waiting for bread?” It reminds us: this is how bad it could get.

1. Don’t Give Up Peter Gabriel

You may want to grab a hankie before listening to this heartbreaking duet by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, but that’s not why it’s our choice for the most important song about unemployment. Gabriel voices the despair of the man who has lost his place: “I’ve changed my face, I’ve changed my name / But no one wants you when you lose.” At each turn, Bush offers the comfort of love: “You’re not the only one…You still have us…We’re proud of who you are.” When the world is crumbling around you, family is the best and sometimes only refuge. And that’s the final characteristic of unemployment: what’s left is sometimes what matters most.