9/11 has become a shorthand that everyone knows. A date that has escaped the calendar and transformed into a symbol.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania killed almost 3,000 people and shifted the course of the world. They altered foreign policy, affected the world's economy and cut deep into the subconscious of the West, changing the perspective of many. Sept. 11 would also inspire art and give birth to songs about various aspects of the attacks and their aftermath.
Here, on the 11th anniversary of the attacks, we take a look at several songwriters who found music in the debris.
Neil Young, "Let's Roll"
"Are you ready guys? Let's roll."
These were among the last things said by a New Jersey-based software account manager named Todd Beamer. His words were recorded in a call placed aboard Flight 93 before he rallied a group of fellow passengers to take control of the plane from the hijackers who had commandeered it. Beamer's words inspired Neil Young. The Canadian singer-songwriter penned his song just after the plane went down and released it as a single. The song would later appear on his album Are you Passionate? Serving testament to the artistic draw of the phrase, several other acts recorded 9/11 themed songs called "Let's Roll", including Montreal's The Stills and popular Christian rockers dc talk.
Bruce Springsteen, "The Rising"
With his 2002 album The Rising, Springsteen was praised for making an emotional, thoughtful, measured and empathetic artistic statement about the aftermath of Sept. 11. Of the album, Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "Springsteen wades into the wreckage and pain of that horrendous event and emerges bearing fifteen songs that genuflect with enormous grace before the sorrows that drift in its wake."
The Low Anthem, "Boeing 737"
“I was in the air when the towers came down, in a bar on the 84th floor,” wail the Low Anthem on this lament, recorded a decade after the towers actually came down. It is a great example of how great art can capture the immediacy and passion of a moment, even years later. The song was accompanied by a metaphoric video, described by the production company as: "a flock of wire-walkers move through the skies as they are pursued by a band of circus men. Feathers fly and axes swing as the graceful figures are brought plummeting down to Earth."
Toby Keith, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue"
Keith wrote this song in 20 minutes, reflecting on the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the death of his father, a former member of the U.S. Army. Keith was persuaded to record his uber-patriotic song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," by James L. Jones, a U.S. Marine Corps general, after first choosing to perform it only live.
While the song went to #1 on the country charts, the marching-as-to-war sentiment ("Justice will be served / And the battle will rage / This big dog will fight / When you rattle his cage") was met with criticism by some, including the Dixie Chicks and, according to Keith, newsman Peter Jennings, who allegedly wanted the lyrics of the song changed ahead of Keith's performance on an ABC special.
Leonard Cohen, "On That Day"
On 2004's Dear Heather, the bard of Montreal fixed his philosophical gaze upon the devastation of a few years earlier and asked questions without answers in his song "On That Day" — "Some people say / It’s what we deserve / For sins against g-d / For crimes in the world / I wouldn’t know / I’m just holding the fort / Since that day / They wounded New York."
Ryan Adams, "New York, New York"
"Hell, I still love you New York." The lyrics of Ryan Adams's "New York, New York" rang out over airwaves everywhere after the towers fell. An anthem to rebuilding and supporting the Big Apple. The thing was, it was written before the attacks. And the video, featuring the twin towers, was filmed four days before the skyline of the city was drastically changed. Adams's song, despite his efforts, became tied to the attacks.
"I wasn't working the song, not playing it live," Adams recently said of that period in an interview with Billboard. "Basically, my request was that the song wouldn't be used in any television, documentaries or commercials, and that they would just take the video off. I was told they couldn't take the video out of rotation. ... It played a few times, and I said that if they didn't add some kind of statement to the video, I was gonna protest in some way. Finally they took care of it. ... It was so weird, like it was meant to be ... you couldn't take a photograph of New York back then without the towers being in there."
What song best represents 9/11 to you? Let us know in the comments below.
Related:
View CBC's archived coverage of 9/11
Rear-View Mirror: The politics of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen 5 for 20 by superfan Jeff Cohen
Neil Young's Americana returns to his folk roots
Toby Keith is a Democrat? Check out our country music and politics infographic