MONTEFIORE: Some of these songs are extremely dark and almost unbearable, you know, like "Strange Fruit," and some are just outrageous fun. What scholarly contribution does or do Herman's Hermits make? HERMAN'S HERMITS: (Singing) I'm Henry VIII, I am. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M HENRY VIII, I AM") (SOUNDBITE OF HERMAN'S HERMITS SONG, "I'M HENRY VIII, I AM") SIMON: Abel Meeropol adopted Michael and Robby (ph) Meeropol, who had been born to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. SIMON: I feel the need to cite the author of the song Abel Meeropol. SIMONE: (Singing) Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. So some of the families, as you mentioned, are royal families, political families, families of power, but some are enslaved families, too. You know, the great thing about writing a family history of the world is that you can cover these things in special ways.
And slavery is a big part of this world history, Atlantic slavery, but also other slave trades in East Africa, trans-Saharan and the Mediterranean-Black Sea slave trade as well. It tells part of the story of America, of the Jim Crow years of America. MONTEFIORE: I mean, this is a song this is a terrifying, terrible, atrocious narrative of a lynching in the South. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Bearing strange fruit - blood on the leaves and blood at the roots. SIMON: More music - Nina Simone's version of "Strange Fruit." And so I thought, God, it'd be really fun to have a playlist of all the great history songs, which I define as - history song is either about a historical character or characters, or it's a song that becomes the theme of a historical event. MONTEFIORE: Well, part of the fun thing about writing a family history is to get a feel of the way people lived, which is not just empires rising and falling, battles and pandemics, but also how they ate, how they dressed and, of course, what kind of music they listen to.
SIMON: What is this playlist provide for our perspective on history? ROLLING STONES: (Singing) I rode a tank, held a general's rank when the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL") I think it's one of the best-written rock songs of all time.
1 - the brilliant way it's written, the trope of an unknown narrator that we whom we discover, whose identity is revealed and who plays a role in many of the most terrible atrocities of the 20th century. SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE: I put it as my No.
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