War Protest Songs

{This column was originally a Hyperion Chronicle, moved over here to our Music Analysis section}

The Hyperion Chronicles
“All I am saying….is give this column a chance”

#383 War (songs), What are they good for?

I think my record speaks for itself; I'm no anti-war protester. (Speaking in principle here, not for anything specific.) In fact, just about the dumbest notion I can think of is that peace is always preferable to war. I’m sure it sounds really great sitting around your dorm room smoking up, but it’s stone stupid when it comes to the real world. Yes, war is always terrible. And sometimes no war is worse.

Politics aside, though, I’m a fan of music as well as the next man. It astounds me that the current anti-war crowd can’t come up with some good protest music. I mean, if the ‘60s and early ‘70s taught us anything, it’s that people rally around a cause a lot better if there is a theme song. (Cable news has learned this fact, by making new theme music to each new disaster or peril that comes their way.)

Now, far be it from me to help the morons heading the anti-war PR department. Good Lord; could these people run a campaign less effectively? Again, politics aside, there was a perception that the war in Iraq was failing—whether or not that’s the truth—and these people still couldn’t defeat Bush?

(Just so it seems like I’m not playing favorites, the pro-war PR machine isn’t doing any better. You remember WAG THE DOG, where the fake war had a producer? I’m thinking this would be a good idea for a real war too. But I digress.)

My point is, while I’m not keen to help either of the bungling sides, there may be a reader out there who wants to get into the fray and be a bungling moron him or herself. Now, I don’t have a whole lot of music that’s pro—war. (Besides, I think Country Music has been contracted for that.) Wait! I just thought of a Christian song (well, sort of Christian) that might apply. I’ll find the lyrics and post them at the end.

What I do have are two great anti-war songs. I’m not saying they made me join the Peace Corps, but I think they are both powerful and, used effectively, could strike a chord.

The songs come from as different a groups as you can imagine. (I assume someone with gravitas would want to re-record them.) The first song comes from a little-known ‘80s group called Johnny Hates Jazz. They mostly did forgettable pop (does anyone remember “Shattered Dreams”?), but on their album there was one song that could have resonance. (I apologize about the sound quality, but it’s the best I could do on short notice):

“I Don’t Want to be a Hero”

Johnny Hates Jazz

Oh, send me off to war

With a gun in my hand

But I won’t pull the trigger

Out destiny is here

’neath the red, white and blue

So lead me to the slaughter

Now don’t be afraid

Come and join the parade

For the ultimate in sacrifice

It’s an old-fashioned story

Of hope and of glory

A ticket for taking a life

(chorus)

I, I don’t want to be a hero

I don’t want to die for you

I don’t want to be a hero

Oh send me off to war

In a far away land

I never knew existed

Subject me to the truth

To the horror and pain

Until my mind is twisted

And what if I fail

Will you put me in jail

For a murder I will not commit?

’cause you don’t understand

Till there’s blood on your hands

That it’s time to forget and forgive

(chorus)

And those who return

Come back only to learn

That they’re hated by those who they love

’Cause you’re not satisfied

Till the thousand will die

And your anger is paid for in blood

A couple of notes: First, the whole “forget and forgive”’ line should be reversed, because A) it’s the more common expression and B) it rhymes with commit. Still, even though it’s fairly vacuous (and look up that word before you disagree with me), those lyrics are powerful, huh?

“What if I fail, will you put me in jail for a murder I will not commit? ‘Cause you don’t understand ‘til there’s blood on your hands that it’s time to forgive and forget.”

A couple more great lines: “Our destiny is here, ‘neath the red, white and blue, so lead me to the slaughter.” “…a ticket for taking a life.”

“’Cause you’re not satisfied till the thousands have died and your anger is paid for in blood.”

Good stuff. I think someone could use this.

***

Next up we have another one of those songs that seems really deep. The more you look at the lyrics, the more you realize how contradictory and confusing they are. But hey, what do you expect from Guns N’ Roses? I know: GNR has a conscience? I guess so. Anyway, here is the song and the lyrics.

“Civil War”
Guns N’ Roses

"What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men."

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land


And
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war


Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

The lyrics defy rational analysis, but GNR does know how to turn a phrase, don’t they? The “power hungry selling soldiers in a human grocery store” is just brilliantly vivid.

Again, I cannot figure out why the Anti-War crowd can’t come up with anything these days. You’d at least figure that “Civil War” would become popular again. The Johnny Hates Jazz song is probably too ‘80s-popish, but someone could at least cover it.

***

And lest you think I’m just paying homage to one side of the argument, I went out of my way to find a pro-war song. This was harder than you’d think, as people generally don’t sing about how great war is. There is that Lee Blackwood song (“God Bless the U.S.A.), and some of the post-9/11 stuff, but everyone’s heard that. Finally I found something out of the ordinary. It’s not so much pro-war as it just happens to have a soldier in it. Anyway, the song is by Nickel Creek, and is so pretty it always makes me have to find a Kleenex or two. A good way to end the column.

"The Hand Song"
Nickel Creek

The boy only wanting to give mother something,
And all of her roses had bloomed.

Looking at him as he came rushing in,
Knowing her roses were doomed.

All she could see were some thorns buried deep,
And tears that he cried as she tended his wounds.

And she knew it was love, it was what she could understand.
He was showing his love and that's how he hurt his hands.

He still remembers that night as a child, on his mother’s knee.
She held him close and she opened her Bible, and quietly started to read.

Then seeing a picture of Jesus, he cried out:
"Mama he's got some scars just like me!"

And he knew it was love, it was what he could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

[instrumental break]

Now the boy is grown and moved out on his own.
When Uncle Sam comes along.
A foreign affair, but our young men are there.
And luck had his number drawn.

It wasn't that long till our hero was gone, he gave to a friend what he learned from the cross.

But they knew it was love, it one they could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

It was one they could understand.

He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

Hyperion
March 29, 2006

Do you have a song that deserves analysis? Write and let us know, and maybe we’ll cover it in a future column.