The following are songs that Karl Marlantes considers significant to or expressive of the time in which Matterhorn is set:
We Gotta Get Outta This Place by Eric Burdon and the Animals. (Marlantes says, "The chorus was almost an anthem: 'We got to get out of this place. If it's the last thing we ever do. We got to get out of this place. There's a better life for me and you.' People would sing it stoned, drunk or sober, shouting it at the top of their lungs in bars, enlisted clubs, officer clubs. A Vietnam veteran can't hear this song without being put right back to that time and place.")
I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel
Wild Thing by the Troggs
Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud by James Brown
I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die by Country Joe and the Fish
Memphis Soul Stew by King Curtis and the Kingpins
Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Someday We'll be Together by the Supremes
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles
Light My Fire by the Doors
The Night Train by James Brown
I'll Be There by the Jackson Five
I Say a Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
Sing Me Back Home by Merle Haggard
19th Nervous Breakdown by the Rolling Stones
Stoned Soul Picnic by the Fifth Dimension