I have not been able to stop listening to the title song of this post since nineweaving gave me the album it comes from. I'm in the process of tracking down the book that will tell me more about its subject. A few years ago I made a post of songs about historical figures. (All links are dead; ask here in comments if you want something.) Here is sort of the sequel, comprised of other historically minded songs I've collected since then.

The Bills, "Bamfield's John Vanden"

I come from the mud and the wind and the wet
From as far to the west as a man can get

Andrew Bird, "Not a Robot, But a Ghost"

I crack the codes
I crack the codes that end the war

Carmody, "A Song for Sappho"

And she's been wearing lilac raincoats in imaginary storms
And dancing with the gods to keep safe and warm

8in8, "Nikola Tesla"

It was the twenty-fourth of March
He had a really cute mustache

Gilmore & Roberts, "Doctor James"

A delicate face and your voice was high
Your voice was high and they called you names
You fought two duels and you won them both
Put them all to shame
Tell me your secret, Doctor James

Hot Air Ballooning, "Wittgenstein Wakes Up (Piano Version)"

I can deconstruct your nouns
I'll illuminate your verbs
Parts of speech just out of reach
All over our breakfast

The Jazz Butcher, "Peter Lorre"

Sydney Greenstreet does not scare him
Peter Lorre knows no fear
Fearless little Peter Lorre, he's a brick

The Jellybottys, "Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable"

He goes shopping on his bicycle
You can meet him buying vegetables

Laura Veirs, "That Alice"

I never had a chance to see her play
I listen to her records and I feel the grace

Lydia Loveless, "Verlaine Shot Rimbaud"

I don't care if I feel half alive
And waste away with you in some Parnassian dive
I just want to know that I'm the one that makes you write that shit

Nathan Rogers, "The Jewel of Paris"

So, mon pétit, you were born 'cross the sea
To the Huron of Ville Sainte-Marie
You just happened to be entrusted to me
To bring you as the jewel of Paris

Norma Waterson, "Reply to Joe Haines"

Read your letter, tore the page
Wondered whether to write in rage
Then I thought it better to use your trade
No one should ever die of AIDS

O'Hooley & Tidow, "Gentleman Jack"

At Shibden Hall, she had them all
The fairer sex fell under her spell
Dapper and bright, she held them tight
Handsome Anne seduced them well

Patti O'Doors, "Amelia Earhart"

Oh, in years to come, though others blaze a trail across the sky
We'll ne'er forget Amelia and her plane

Wilson & Swarbrick, "The Ballad of Jack McLaren"

Jack McLaren, where's your haversack? Ye must hae somethin in it
The troops with the Fifty-Fifth are comin over for a visit
Yin of them lads has got a line on some whisky and some rum
Tonight ahin the farmhouse we're goin to have some fun

The rest of today was pretty much exhausting suck except for the part where (a) I got dinner from Noor Mediterranean Grill because they are five minutes' walk from our house and their beef shawarma wrap (on saj rather than pita) was amazingly delicious. They sell yogurt drinks and gave me an entire container of free pickled turnips when I saw they had them. By "they" I mean the owners, because that's who was behind the counter. Nice baklava, made with pistachios. I have an order of baba ghanoush in the refrigerator waiting for lunch tomorrow, because I ran out of room for it after the yogurt drink and the wrap. So that was lovely and (b) I opened a birthday card from derspatchel's mother and it was dripping with sparkly purple fringe like a flapper's dress and proclaimed FABULOUS in marquee-style lettering and inside there was, I don't know where she found it, a cut-out image of a blue-tailed mermaid with a long braid and a black cat on her shoulder. And that was wholly unexpected and I must write her and express both gratitude and amazement.

And the latest issue of Mythic Delirium is now live! You'll have to wait until November to read my piece unless you want to spring for the e-book, but that should not stop you from enjoying, especially, rose_lemberg and selidor's poems now. They are the opposite of exhaustion.