Lyr Req: At the End of a Pointed Gun (W Laskin)

Subject: at the of a pointed gun
From: GUEST,johntm
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:30 PM

words by william "grit" laskin in a tannahill weaver album "passage"


--- Thread title corrected. ---
---Jeff (PA)---

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: at the of a pointed gun
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:48 PM

"At the End of a Pointed Gun" (lyrics) is HERE & HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: at the end of a pointed gun
From: GUEST,johntm
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 08:46 PM

Thanks Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: at the end of a pointed gun
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 09:06 PM

A zionist propaganda song meant to portray jews as victims of Arabs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: at the end of a pointed gun
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 09:16 PM

Guest: without taking sides, I find your anonymous comment offensive. The write up of this song does state it was about the Murders at the Olympics. And those are a matter of public record.
But, I see no claim in the song for a 'Home State', hence no Zionism. With the original posting coming from a guest, and your posting, this could almost be seen as a 'put-up' job to allow someone to denounce the Jews.
I am not saying that this is the case, but I feel your comments were unnecessary.
To clarify my position (for the sake of openness) I am an Anglican Catholic.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: at the end of a pointed gun
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 09:37 PM

Nigel Parsons,

You should learn to read.

In the lyrics to this zionist song, by the jewish songwriter Laskin, he refers specifically to his "homeland" and he "dares" anyone to try and challenge his right to it. He brags about how he and his fellow zionists took the land "at the end of a pointed gun," but then claims the Palestinians murdered his son "at the end of a pointed gun." Quite the zionistic double standard.

The zionists know too well about double standards, don't they? Compare how many Palestinians, mostly women and children, that they kill in comparison to the jews who are killed.

Subject: Lyr Add: AT THE END OF A POINTED GUN (W Laskin)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 11:58 AM

Nigel: A word to the wise: Don't bother arguing with anonymous guests.

Copied from http://www.mixed-up.com/lyrics/folk/pointed.html

AT THE END OF A POINTED GUN
Tannahill Weavers
From the album "Passage" © 1984
Lyrics by William Laskin (Strutting Day Music/Fogarty's Cove Music)
Melody traditional, "Erev Shel Shoshanim"

I've laboured through two world wars, an old war that still fights on.
I'll dare any man says I've not worked this land that I stand upon,
A homeland both free and strong to harbour my only son.
I hoped he'd never see as I the end of a pointed gun.

CHO: My nation and my son, my nation and my son,
One found its birth, one found his death
At the end of a pointed gun.

"Oh, praised be Olympiad!" was echoed the whole world round,
Nation to nation unified on one chosen stretch of ground.
Oh, proud were the boys as mine to play for their own country.
I wish to God he'd never gone, but stayed with his family. CHO.

The games scarcely had begun when out of each winner's joy,
Bloodshed rose unexpectedly: Eleven dead, and one my boy.
How does a father mourn his murdered hopes and dreams?
How on this earth can he escape the agonies he has seen? CHO.

I've laboured through two world wars, an old war that still fights on.
I'll dare any man says I've not worked this land my boy rests upon. CHO.

From the liner notes:

We first heard this song as a kind of background music to conversation. One by one we were drawn to the beauty of the melody until, all at once, the only sound in the room was the song. "Grit" Laskin is the writer responsible for this, having put new words to a haunting traditional tune. He is a very fine writer and musician from Ontario, Canada who, as we are writing and singing, builds some of the finest acoustic instruments in North America.

Grit has put himself in the position of the father of one of the Israeli athletes killed at the Munich Olympic Games. We feel he describes perfectly the personal thoughts and feelings of a father embittered by useless violence and death. The pain and anguish felt at the loss of his only son should be a reminder to us all that, no matter what colour, politics or religion we might have, the loss of a loved one is equally painful.

We sing this in the hope that one day man will not be so ready to inflict this pain on his fellow human being.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: At the End of a Pointed Gun (W Laskin)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 03:33 PM

A great song when it was written, even greater now with the escalation of terrorism in the Intifada.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: At the End of a Pointed Gun (W Laskin)
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 08:22 PM

In response to the thread;"The land was taken at the end of a pointed gun, but so was his son,", the land would not have been taken at the end of a pointed gun if seven Arab armies didn't attack the half of the current Israel as divided by U.N. mandate. Muslims have land from the Pacific to the Atlantic, was it too much to give Jews (who were there first but expelled by the Romans and persecuted ever since)an area half the size of NJ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: At the End of a Pointed Gun (W Laskin
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 10:28 PM

The Tannahill Weavers recording is excellent. It's also on a Laskin LP, and that LP and another of his have been released together as a single CD. There is some very nice music on that CD.