Today I did a search in my music library for Phoenix’s hit song “1901″ and noticed that there were a ton of tracks that had a year from the 1900s referenced in the title. Even more surprising is how good a lot of these songs are! Here’s some of my favorites in chronological order:
Phoenix // 1901 (Live & Unplugged)
Woody Guthrie // 1913 Massacre
Swan Lake // Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914
Neutral Milk Hotel // Holland, 1945
The Mountain Goats // Chino Love Song 1979
The Mountain Goats // Sept 15, 1983
M. Ward // From a Pirate Radio Sermon, 1989
Department of Eagles // 1997 (Daytrotter Session)
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names // 1999
A brief search for past centuries yielded paltry results in comparison (just a Slagsmalsklubben “1888 Franklin” song and a handful of year 2000 references). What’s also interesting is a lot of the 1900s referenced tracks were made in the aughts, highlighting how nostalgia was certainly in vogue the first decade of the 20th century. Anyways, just thought this was something pretty cool to find!
