All-Time Best Anti-War Songs?
- Thread starter TremulousTetra
- Start date
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
This one is a favourite...it's a WWI song...the prevailing jingoism of the time made this a rare and brave sentiment...
Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers' hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur through her tears:
Chorus:
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
(Chorus)
What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the year to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!
Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers' hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur through her tears:
Chorus:
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
(Chorus)
What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the year to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!
Billy Bragg - Between the wars Billy Bragg - Like soldiers do
fishfingerer
sultan of cringe
Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"
I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A
=============
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, theyre red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, dont they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no millionaires son, no.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"
I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A
=============
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, theyre red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, dont they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no millionaires son, no.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Listen children to a story that was written long ago
'bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they'd have it for their very own.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: "With our brothers we will share
all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there."
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword,
and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
turned the stone and looked beneath it. "Peace on earth" was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
'bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they'd have it for their very own.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: "With our brothers we will share
all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there."
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword,
and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
turned the stone and looked beneath it. "Peace on earth" was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
A cd I made for the car (some anti-war, some "hippy-like" I guess you could call them):
Buffalo Springfield - Stop Children What's That Sound
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Though The Jungle
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Love The One You're With
Dixie Chicks - Travelling Soldier
Edwin Starr - War, What is it Good For
Elvis Costello - What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding
Eminem - Mosh
Eric Bogle - And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Faith No More - War Pigs
Four Non Blondes - What's Up
George Michael - Shoot The Dog
Joni Mitchell - Woodstock
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Midnight Oil - Put Down That Weapon
Midnight Oil - US Forces
Neil Young - Ohio
Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad
Peter, Paul & Mary - Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Petula Clark - What The World Needs Now
Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Public Enemy - He Got Game
Redgum - I Was Only 19
Spearhead - Bomb The World
System of a Down - Boom
The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn
The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Tricky - Evolution Revolution Love
Buffalo Springfield - Stop Children What's That Sound
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Though The Jungle
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Love The One You're With
Dixie Chicks - Travelling Soldier
Edwin Starr - War, What is it Good For
Elvis Costello - What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding
Eminem - Mosh
Eric Bogle - And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Faith No More - War Pigs
Four Non Blondes - What's Up
George Michael - Shoot The Dog
Joni Mitchell - Woodstock
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Midnight Oil - Put Down That Weapon
Midnight Oil - US Forces
Neil Young - Ohio
Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad
Peter, Paul & Mary - Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Petula Clark - What The World Needs Now
Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Public Enemy - He Got Game
Redgum - I Was Only 19
Spearhead - Bomb The World
System of a Down - Boom
The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn
The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Tricky - Evolution Revolution Love
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
JoePolitix said:
The first song that came to my mind once I saw this thread. Awesome awesome awesome lyrics.
The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
Conservative political right wing, ideology
Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations, we continue the saga
El Savador and the contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison
Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism
[Hook]
It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view of the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Read about the history of the place that we live in
And stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children
[Verse 2]
Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon
It's open season with the CIA, bugging my crib
Trapped in a ghetto region like a Palestinian kid
Where nobody gives a fuck whether you die or you live
I'm tryin' to give the truth, and I know the price is my life
But when I'm gone they'll sing a song about Immortal Technique
Who beheaded the President, and the princes and sheiks
You don't give a fuck about us, I can see through your facade
Like a fallen angel standing in the presence of God
Bitch niggaz scared of the truth, when it looks at you hard
[Hook]
It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view in the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Martial law is coming soon to the hood, to kill you
While you hanging your flag out your project window
[Talking]
Yeah..
The fourth branch of the government AKA the media
Seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials
As if their opinion was at all unbiased
A machine shouldn't speak for men
So shut the fuck up you mindless drone!
And you know it's serious
When these same media outfits are spending millions of dollars on a PR campaign
To try to convince you they're fair and balanced
When they're some of the most ignorant, and racist people
Giving that type of mentality a safe haven
We act like we share in the spoils of war that they do
We die in wars, we don't get the contracts to make money off 'em afterwards!
We don't get weapons contracts, nigga!
We don't get cheap labor for our companies, nigga!
We are cheap labor, nigga!
Turn off the news and read, nigga!
Read... read... read...
fishfingerer
sultan of cringe
i did this with me mate
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/apathy/story/0,,899409,00.html
Da Empire spanks 'raq
===
Ya I be jonezin for tha muthableepin black bling bling
Flexed to pop thoze bleepas when tha patriot missiles sing
Punks be moanin when they fallin neath our shadow
Baghdad gonna look like a great big squashed tomato
Me bruthas be cold war old-skool, tha anthrax be the terry tool
Kalashnikovs and scuds they be tha weapons of tha fool
Me flamboasting F-16 be steppin to tha AM
I'm a do it like this coz I be rainin down tha mayhem
Bleep them bleepin peaceniks from muthableepin B-town
Bumrush ya Guardian posse, hey I'm a lay tha beatdown
I be drunk on power yo, sista I be bent
Gonna shock and awe y_all, this tip be heaven sent
I talkin Good and Evil, I gettin Manichaean (huh?)
Cease ya bold blasphemin', lets a see some genuflexion
The hand of Jesus guides me joystick, homin' in on Satan
No sleep for dis G til dat punk's snuffed out of tha equation
'Raqi homies be staggerin, comin up to thank
When I lays down me gatt and I be whippin out me bank
When I done glockin tha mid east, I'm a part that veil
And when I'm done and blunted, I'm a leave a trail
Gonna pave that whole hood over, be cuttin in my low low
Don't need no UN mandate, dis playa goin solo
I ain't no poser newjack, been peelin caps for decades
You can't scrap a lick against tha S1W crossfade
(chorus)
Bok bok!
2 2 da dome
On behalf o' cheeky Tone B
Then up up up and away
In me gold rotored fog lamped go faster striped Apache
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/apathy/story/0,,899409,00.html
Da Empire spanks 'raq
===
Ya I be jonezin for tha muthableepin black bling bling
Flexed to pop thoze bleepas when tha patriot missiles sing
Punks be moanin when they fallin neath our shadow
Baghdad gonna look like a great big squashed tomato
Me bruthas be cold war old-skool, tha anthrax be the terry tool
Kalashnikovs and scuds they be tha weapons of tha fool
Me flamboasting F-16 be steppin to tha AM
I'm a do it like this coz I be rainin down tha mayhem
Bleep them bleepin peaceniks from muthableepin B-town
Bumrush ya Guardian posse, hey I'm a lay tha beatdown
I be drunk on power yo, sista I be bent
Gonna shock and awe y_all, this tip be heaven sent
I talkin Good and Evil, I gettin Manichaean (huh?)
Cease ya bold blasphemin', lets a see some genuflexion
The hand of Jesus guides me joystick, homin' in on Satan
No sleep for dis G til dat punk's snuffed out of tha equation
'Raqi homies be staggerin, comin up to thank
When I lays down me gatt and I be whippin out me bank
When I done glockin tha mid east, I'm a part that veil
And when I'm done and blunted, I'm a leave a trail
Gonna pave that whole hood over, be cuttin in my low low
Don't need no UN mandate, dis playa goin solo
I ain't no poser newjack, been peelin caps for decades
You can't scrap a lick against tha S1W crossfade
(chorus)
Bok bok!
2 2 da dome
On behalf o' cheeky Tone B
Then up up up and away
In me gold rotored fog lamped go faster striped Apache
Tricky Mickey
regular as clockwork
Top thread.
My vote goes to Bill Withers' I Can't Write Left-Handed, live at Carnegie Hall 1972.
It's a really simple song written from the point of view of a young man shot in Vietnam. The lyrics are plain and straightforward, but the performance is too intense for words. It's an unbelievable piece of music.
My vote goes to Bill Withers' I Can't Write Left-Handed, live at Carnegie Hall 1972.
It's a really simple song written from the point of view of a young man shot in Vietnam. The lyrics are plain and straightforward, but the performance is too intense for words. It's an unbelievable piece of music.
Meltingpot
Living in our pools we soon forget about the sea
old thread
Meltingpot
Living in our pools we soon forget about the sea
This is a continuation of an old thread, which was brought to mind by a lot of the discussion of things military we've had on Urban recently;
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/all-time-best-anti-war-songs.99177/
I'll kick off with this one (any excuse for a Kate video, I know, but it is a good song);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdHOm256N4
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/all-time-best-anti-war-songs.99177/
I'll kick off with this one (any excuse for a Kate video, I know, but it is a good song);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdHOm256N4
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
One ive just made up that goes "war ia worse than aids, ans its the rich who gonna get paid, its all a massive sharade, war is the worst thing ever made".
I have moar...
I have moar...
Meltingpot
Living in our pools we soon forget about the sea
Thanks for the replies; there's some good ones there (Jon that one's got potential 
).
Here's a couple more, both from 1970;
).Here's a couple more, both from 1970;
Brixton Hatter
Home is south London mate
With the killer opening line of "Motherfuck a war!" and chorus of "I aint going to war for a shit talking president"
Meltingpot
Living in our pools we soon forget about the sea
I only saw the one thread in my search, so apologies if there's any duplication with other threads. Good song there though.
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