I'll add Cuyahoga which is about the the river in Ohio that was on fire back in the day.
Excellent choice. This was on my list, too. That also was inspiration for songs like Randy Newman's "Burn On."
REM's "Cuyahoga" also has an undercurrent (bad pun, sorry) about displacement of Native American culture along with historic revisionism.
- "Rewrite the book and rule the pages"
- “Our father’s father’s father tried/erased the parts he didn’t like.”
Also, compare lyrics from first and third chorus/refrain sections (My italics for emphasis).
First chorus:
This is where
we walked
This is where
we swam
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Third chorus:
There is where
they walked, swam, hunted, danced and sang
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Didn't mean to get so academic on that one.