Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 08:44 AM

Surprised nobody's mentioned Ian Campbell's "The sun is burning in the sky".

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 02:42 AM

The Green Fields of France.
Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
The Flowers Of The Forest.

These would be my choices. The Flowers of The Forest is played on the pipes at all military funerals. I like the song too. One day it will be played for me.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE H-BOMB'S THUNDER (John Brunner)
From: Neighmond
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 11:42 PM

THE H-BOMB'S THUNDER
(John Brunner)

Don't you hear the H-bombs' thunder
Echo like the crack of doom?
While they rend the skies asunder
Fall-out makes the earth a tomb;
Do you want your homes to tumble,
Rise in smoke towards the sky?
Will you let your cities crumble,
Will you see your children die?

Cho: Men and women, stand together.
Do not heed the men of war.
Make your minds up now or never,
Ban the bomb for evermore.

Tell the leaders of the nations
Make the whole wide world take heed:
Poison from the radiations
Strikes at every race and creed.
Must you put mankind in danger,
Murder folk in distant lands?
Will you bring death to a stranger,
Have his blood upon your hands?

Shall we lay the world in ruin?
Only you can make the choice.
Stnp and think of what you're doing.
Join the march and raise your voice.
Time is short; we must be speedy.
We can see the hungry filled,
House the homeless, help the needy.
Shall we blast, or shall we build ?


For what it's worth

Chaz

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 10:36 PM

The House Band sings a lovely one called "The Walls of Troy," which you can also hear on Out of the Rain's "With the Friends I Love Best."

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Cluin
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 05:50 PM

Yeah, those two Bogle songs, "No Man's Land" and "Band Played Waltzing Matilda", I used to like.

Great anti-war songs, but now I'm just so damned sick of them. The fellow who used to sing them in our band just recently left and the rest of us agreed we never want to play them again. I won't miss that at all.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 05:31 PM

Have to agree with anais. As many have said Band played Walting Matilda has to be No 1 but in a simple sort of how to combat war Aurther and his cousin in Arthur McBride and the Sergeant did a pretty good job.

Others Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire
Willie Mc Bride



Andrew

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 05:07 PM

I'd like to put in a word for "Catalonia", recorded by De Dannan and written I believe by Phil Colclough. Very poignant.

Also a song I've heard in my local pub, don't know the title or composer, but the chorus goes:
"And the petals fell from the rose of York
Never to rise again".

Anybody got any info. about this?

Piff

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Cluin
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 02:32 AM

In the 3rd last line above, it should be "word", not "will".

Subject: Lyr Add: KING'S COMMAND (Dougie MacLean)
From: Cluin
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 02:16 AM

Another one from Dougie, off his 1980 Snaigow album:


King's Command
(MacLean/Stewart/Hadden/Sutherland)

I've been called to fight for royalty
For the King at his right hand
Be a martyr for my country
Spill my blood out on the land
And if I should die in battle
Then it's a noble thing I do
But if I should be a hero
Then I will return to you

The glens have been my kingdom
My only loyalty
And I would raise my sword against the lord
To protect my family
But to join an English army
And to fight for them abroad
Not for England, nor her empire
Would I ever raise my sword

I can hear the trumpets sounding
It will lead me far away
But although my soul is leaving
My heart will surely stay
And I will fight for them tomorrow
Though it be against my will
Than to see my children perish
On an English soldier's sword

(repeat 1st verse)

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: anais
Date: 24 Feb 03 - 02:13 PM

eric bogle really did it best. if i were to pick the classics that always make me cry, would have to be
june tabor's version of "no man's land"
june tabor again doing "and the band played waltzing matilda"
paul brady's killer interpretation of "arthur macbride"
paul brady's version of "bonny woodhall"
-lovely, surpised no one's mentioned it.
maddy prior and tim hart's "dancing at whitsun"
john roberts and tony barrand "valley of the shadow"
-again, a brilliant song, wish i could offer up all the lyrics but i don't know 'em.
sandy denny, "banks of the nile"
dick gaughan, "handful of earth"
steeleye span's "the victory"...oh god, it's just really sad.
and who ever it is who sings christmas in the trenches...?
recently i've been taken with the idea of teaching large groups to sing "hanging on the old barbed wire" and taking to the streets.
a good comment about the "chicken hawks" running the show these days.

Subject: Lyr Add: BRAVE NEW WORLD (Dominic Behan?)
From: maire-aine
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 02:55 PM

Brave New World, by (I think) Dominic Behan:

Tell me now, that hate lies sleeping. Tell me now, that the flag is furled.
Sing to me an end to weeping. Bring to me visions of a brave new world.
Tell me now the day has dawned, love. That man to man, a love as strong has stirred.
Sing with me, sing loud this song love. Sing a great welcome to a brave new world.

Tell me now that hate is dying, tell me now the war flag will fade.
Tell me now that man is trying to use, for man's greatness what great man has made.
To raise aloft from degradation, creating great and glorious deeds by the word.
The word is love for countless nations, countless men* working for a brave new world.

Tell me now, that hate is dead, love. Tell me now, that the flag is done.
Tell me how, there is instead, love, In our hearts, hostility to hatred's wrongs.
When you sing, for me this song love, to lull the earth, our Mother long disturbed,
Only then can we be one, love, where our children live laughing in a brave new world.

* I sing "countless hearts" rather than "countless men".

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

Strafgod - I too would go with "The Minstrel Boy"

It is subtle and gives cause for musing. The tune is light and lyrical but the subject grave and ironic. The contrasts of weak and strong, entertaining and deadly, boy and man, and the phrase "in the ranks of dead you will find him" make it my choice.

You ponder the war's power of enticing the young.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6716

In my opinion the Civil War addition weakens its impact, Thomas Moore had it right the first time.

Subject: Lyr Add: FOR KING AND COUNTRY (Eric Bogle)
From: Tiger
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:39 PM

Add my dittos to all the previous Bogle recommendations. And, somebody finally mentioned "Lorena" a song so devastating that its singing was banned in the camps, 'cause it made everyone want to go AWOL.

Back to Bogle, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (my all-time favorite) and "No Man's Land" are part of his WWI song trilogy. The third, almost never heard, is:

For King And Country — Eric Bogle

CHORUS (Each stanza)
For King and for Country,
We fought and we died.
In the first flush of the dawn
In the fields of Somme.

First to die was our Captain,
He was shot through the lung.
He lay in the mud
And he choked in his blood.

And ten minutes later,
On these green fields of France,
The grass has turned red,
And thousands were dead.

And all through that morning,
The slaughter went on.
We screamed and we cried,
And cursed God as we died.

And when it was over,
And the killing was done,
A generation had gone.
A generation had gone!

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: mg
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:45 AM

I sing this to Auld Lang Syne.....words as I remember them by Kipling..

The garden called Gethsemane in Picardy it was
And there the people came to see the English soldiers pass

We used to pass we used to pass or halt as it may be
And ship our masks in case of gas beyond Gethsemane

The garden called Gethsemane it held a pretty lass
And all the time I talked with her I prayed my cup would pass

The officer sat in a chair the men sat on the grass
And all the while we lingered there I prayed my cup would pass

It did not pass it did not pass it did not pass from me
I drank it when we met the gas beyond Gethsemane

Subject: Lyr Add: SILVER TASSIE
From: Cluin
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 11:38 PM

Not exactly an anti-war song, I guess, bot not pro-war either:

Archie Fisher set music to this little Burns poem on his ORFEO album many years ago, singing it as only he can. I've always liked this little gem....

Silver Tassie

Gae bring tae me a pint o' wine
And fill it in a silver tassie
That I may drink, before I go
A service tae my bonnie lassie

   The boat rocks at the pier o' Leith,
   Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry
   The ship sails by the Berwick-Law
   And I maun leave my bonnie Mary

The trumpets sound, the banners fly
The glitt'rin' spears are ranked an' ready
The shouts o' war are heard afar
And the battle closes deep and bloody

   Tis not the roar o' sea on shore
   Wad mak' me langer wish tae tarry
   Nor shouts o' war that's heard afar
   But leaving thee, my bonny Mary

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Florida
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 10:46 PM

Not necessarily the greatest, but three of the most poignant ones I know are

Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Lorena
Just Before The Battle, Mother

The Patriot Game is one of my favorites (I know at least three versions)

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 03:00 PM

Maybe not the greatest but very good is And The Poppies Lie Buried Together, humerously sad is The Airman

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: banjomad (inactive)
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 08:34 AM

' The Old Man's Tale ' by Ian Campbell, three generations in one song,
three lifetimes of war and here we go again. We have learnt fucking nothing in the last 200 years.
Dave

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Indiana Brandon
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:56 AM

Allright, I know, I'm jumping into the POP genres, but here's a couple more:
"Zombie" by the Cranberries and "Gunpowder" by Wyclef Jean

"Zombie" was influenced by the fighting in Northern Ireland and "Gunpowder" was influenced by fighting in Haiti. Everytime I listen to "Gunpowder" it sends chills up and down my spine...lyrics for these two songs can be found at:

Zombie @ http://www.alwaysontherun.net/cranber.htm

Gunpowder @ http://www.purelyrics.com/index.php?lyrics=cqhpeugh


Indiana Brandon

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:05 PM

What about Joni Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum" or Dylan's "tears of Rage?"

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: mg
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 09:54 PM

It's a poem but I put a tune to it and probably wrecked it by shortening it...but Watchman what of the night.. mg

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: IanC
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 12:41 PM

Dancing At Whitsun

Subject: Lyr Add: HOME LADS HOME
From: Gervase
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 12:35 PM

Among my favourites are Home Lads Home, by Cicely Fox Smith, set to music by Sarah Morgan:

HOME LADS HOME

Overseas in Flanders the sun was setting low,
With tramp of feet and jingle as I heard the gunteams go.
But something seemed to set me a dreaming as I lay
Of my old Hampshire village at the quiet end of day.

CHORUS: And it's home, lads home, all among the corn and clover;
Home lads home, when the working day is over.
Where there's rest for horse and man; when the longest day is done,
And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun.

Proud thatch with gardens blooming with lily and with rose;
The Meon flowing past them, so quiet as it goes.
White fields of oats and barley and the elderflower like foam,
And the sky a gold at sunset and the horses going home.

Captain, Boxer, Traveller, I see them all so plain,
With tasselled earflaps nodding all along the leafy lane.
Somewhere a bird is calling and the swallow flying low,
And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they go.

Gone is many a lad now and many a horse gone too;
All those lads and horses from great fields that I knew.
For Dick fell at Givenchy and Prince beside the gun
On that red road to glory a mile or two from Mons.

Grey lads and shadowy horses, I see them all so plain;
I see them and I know them and I call them each by name
While riding down from Swanmore with all the West a-glow,
And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they go;

CHORUS: And it's home, lads, home, with the sunset on their faces;
Home lads, home to those quiet happy places,
Where there's rest for horse and man, when the longest day is done,
And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun.

Les Sullivan, a songwriter who deserves greater fame, has written two superb songs:

MENIN GATE

I see you reading names carved in stone
Each one a man with a tale of his own
You came to Ieper with your friends for fun
I came with mine but I carried a gun

I was a sailor barely nineteen
I fell so far from the sea
They play their bugles each night at eight
For people like me at the old Menin Gate

We joined the navy to fight on the sea
Parfitt and Sawdy, young Dave Tee and me
Funny to think then the one ship we saw
Took us to Belgium to die in the war.

I was a sailor barely nineteen
I fell so far from the sea
They play their bugles each night at eight
For people like me at the old Menin Gate

Everywhere water, rain, mud and clay
One great explosion in water I lay
There in that shell hole that's where I drowned
And to this day well I've never been found

I was a sailor barely nineteen
I fell so far from the sea
They play their bugles each night at eight
For people like me at the old Menin Gate

Laugh with your friends as you travel this land
Read our four names perhaps you'll understand
Out in the fields there's an old shattered tree
And Parfitt and Sawdy, young Dave Tee and me.

I was a sailor barely nineteen
I fell so far from the sea
They play their bugles each night at eight
For people like me at the old Menin Gate.

and

JUTLAND

Where are you goin' my Billy-O,
Where are you goin' my Billy-O,
I'm joining a ship in Scapa Flow,
That's where I'm going my Nancy.

I'm joining "Queen Mary" Nancy-O,
Joining "Queen Mary" Nancy-O,
She's bristling with guns and ready to go,
To sail to glory with Jellicoe,

CHORUS: But where is "Queen Mary"? Gone Now!
And where is the glory? Gone Now!
And six thousand sailors, Gone Now!
They have gone to the bottom at Jutland.

Where are you goin' my Rodney-O,
IWhere are you goin' my Rodney-O,
'm joining a ship in Scapa Flow,
That's where I'm going my Nancy.

I'm joining "Invincible" Nancy-O,
Joining "Invincible" Nancy-O,
She's bristling with guns and ready to go,
To sail to glory with Jellicoe,

CHORUS: But where is "Invincible"? Gone Now!
And where is the glory? Gone Now!
And six thousand sailors, Gone Now!
They have gone to the bottom at Jutland.

Where are you goin' my Johnny-O,
Where are you goin' my Johnny-O,
I'm joining a ship in Scapa Flow,
That's where I'm going my Nancy.

I'm joining the "Black Prince" Nancy-O,
Joining the "Black Prince" Nancy-O,
She's bristling with guns and ready to go,
To sail to glory with Jellicoe,

CHORUS: But where is the "Black Prince"? Gone Now!
And where is the glory? Gone Now!
And six thousand sailors, Gone Now!
They have gone to the bottom at Jutland.

Bob Hambleton of Herga and Maidenhead Folk Clubs has also written a lovely song about song and war - sadly I haven't got the words. Micca has also written an affecting song about Thiepval.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,boab_d
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:08 AM

Hello again I totally agree with the Eric Bogle Choices but his best one
my youngest son came home today hasnt been mentioned
Another couple of real crackers are
Gaberlunzie Dont You Bury Me Before the Battle
Billy Connolly I'm Askin Yae Sergeant Where's Mine

These are just two really great songs that everyone should have a listen too
Dylan

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Midchuck
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:02 AM

Did no one mention "Children of Darkness" on this whole thread, or did I miss it?

I can't believe Dick Farina's been totally forgotten. Or are you all just kids?

On a more current note, I'm very taken by Mick Ryan's Lament, on Tim O'Brien's new album. (Melody is "Garry Owen," if that isn't obvious.)

Peter.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Stewie
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 03:29 AM

Too true, Longarm. And this from Ed Pickford:

And when the sky darkens
And the prospect is war
Who's given a gun
And then pushed to the fore
And expected to die
For the land of our birth
When we've never owned
One handful of earth?

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Longarm
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:29 AM

Don't know about the song but Alistair Huelett wrot an anti war/leftwing song and the most telling line was: 'A bayonet has a working class man on each end"! Perceptive eh?

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,bdtheqb
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 01:51 AM

excellent choices all.. xmas in the trenches is, to me, a very sad commentary about the human condition but gives one a "feel" of what "war" is like maybe.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Indiana Brandon
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 01:05 AM

somebody mentioned "morning Dew" as performed by the Grateful Dead......Bonnie Dobson actually wrote it and performed it originally.....I think it was first recorded on her album "Hootenanny with Bonnie Dobson"........

Indiana Brandon

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Indiana Brandon
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:46 PM

If anybody gets a chance to check out the band Seize the Day, please do........they have a good song called "With my Hammer", which is about a true story of two(?) women going on to a British military base and destroying a jet with just hammers in their hands. The jet was going to be shipped to Indonesia to kill East Timorese...the very amaing thing that occured was that the judge at their trial acquitted them, even when they fully admitted to their "crime".....the judge's response was that they were stopping a greater crime....peace....

Indiana Brandon

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Indiana Brandon
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:40 PM

WOW!!! I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned "Portland Town" by Deroll Adams, and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath..."War Pigs" certainly isn't too "folky" but hey...Ramblin' Jack Elliot does a damn good version of "Portland Town"...

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:24 PM

Another good one: Charlie King's "Acceptable Risks" -- about the risk of bomb-testing to soldiers

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: allanwill
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 10:59 AM

Thanks Stewie - of course, "wailing". I did do a search but never thought to put a "The" in front of the title. Doh!

Allan

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 06:37 PM

Allan,

I posted the words to 'Watchers' some time ago. I took them from the album lyric sheet, so they should be as Hemphill wrote 'em.

Watchers of the Water

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Jazzyjack
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 04:12 PM

Check out the Eileen Laverty thread for " A Mother's Son ".

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Geordie
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 03:43 PM

The Patriot Game by Domonic Behan. One of my all time favourite songs. Says it all.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: gnomad
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 03:12 PM

Bogle's Band Played Waltzing Matilda and (whose?) Dancing at Whitsun are both on my best-songs-ever list.

A couple of fine songs which I don't think have received a mention so far are these 2, both by Keith Marsden: St Aubin sur Mer, and Normandy Orchards.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: wildlone
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 02:51 PM

A little aside to the 51st {Highland} Division's Farewell to Sicilly.
Part of the Eight Army [ the army that had fought through the desert in WWII} were pulled out of the line and sent back to England, "to be re-equiped and to have some R&R".
They were equiped OK and kept in barracks until they were put on transport to the Normandy beaches, as the powers in the war office wanted seasoned troops on the beach as they thought that the untried troops would would panic.
BTW. The war through the desert and up through Italy gets forgotten about. The liberation of Rome took place on the same day as D day.
dave

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOX (from John Denver)
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 12:29 AM

I remember John Denver recorded a recitation of this one on his Poems, Prayers, and Promises album.


THE BOX
by Kendrew Lascelles

Once upon a time in the land of hush-a-bye,
around about the wondrous days of yore,
They came across a sort of box
Bound up with chains and locked with locks
And labelled, 'Kindly do not touch, it's war.'

A decree was issued 'round about --
All with a flourish and a shout
And a gaily coloured mascot
Tripping lightly on before --
'Don't fiddle with that deadly box
or break the chains or pick the locks
And please don't ever mess about with war.'

Well the children understood,
Children happen to be good
And were just as good around the time of yore.
They didn't try to pick the locks
Or break into that deadly box
And never tried to play about with war.

Mommies didn't either
Sisters, Aunts nor Grannies neither
'Cos they were quiet and sweet and pretty
In those wondrous days of yore,
Well very much the same as now
And not the ones to blame somehow
For opening up that deadly box of war,
But someone did...

Someone battered in the lid
And spilled the insides out across the floor,
A sort of bouncy bumpy ball
made up of flags and guns and all
The tears and the horror and the death
That goes with war.

It bounced right out
And went bashing all about
And bumping into everything in store
And what is sad and most unfair
was that it didn't really seem to care
Much who it bumped, or why,
Or what, or for.

It bumped the children mainly
And I'll tell you this quite plainly,
It bumps them everyday and more and more
And leaves them dead and burned and dying
Thousands of them sick and crying,
'Cos when it bumps it's very, very sore.

There is a way to stop the ball,
It isn't very hard at all,
All it takes is wisdom
And I'm absolutely sure
We could get it back into the box
And bind the chains and lock the locks
But no one seems to want to save the children anymore.

Well that's the way it all appears
'Cos it's been bouncing around for years and years
In spite of all the wisdom wizzed
Since those wondrous days of yore,
And the time they came across that box
Bound up with chains and locked with locks
And labelled, 'Kindly do not touch, it's war.'

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,alinact
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 12:27 AM

Thanks Bob. I was hoping you would come through with some information.

I first heard a live version of the song on a radio programme David Mullhullan(?) used to have on Radio National on Sunday nights back in the late seventies/early eighties, and I was really taken with the alternate view the song portrayed.

There's a couple of words I've had to guess at; particularly the word "playing" in the middle bit:

And we saw small boats come sailing
from ships far out to sea.
And the shells came at us, playing
an infernal symphony.

Your advice would be appreciated.

Allan

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Mickey191
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 12:11 AM

Warning Thread Creep- Does anyone recall a poem popular during The Viet Nam War - don't know the name. Got alot of air time. About war being in a box with a warning "Do not Open-This is War." Thanks.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 09:38 PM

G'day alinact/Allan,

The author of Watchers of the Water is Paul Hemphill. It must come from the early part of the '80s, as it was winner of the "New Song and Tune" section of one of the Bush Music Club's annual Song, Poem and Dance Competitions, which started around 1979.

I may well have been the first publisher of this song, in Mulga Wire the Bush Music Club's magazine, where I set it against a song from the Australian side.

I'm not sure where Paul is now living - fairly sure it isn't Sydney.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: Lyr Add: TRAVELING SOLDIER
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 03:47 PM

The one that's been going through my head is Bruce Robison and Farrah Braniff's "Traveling Soldier", just recorded by the Dixie Chicks.

TRAVELING SOLDIER
(Bruce Robison & Farrah Braniff)

Two days past eighteen
He was waiting for the bus in his army greens
Sat down in a booth in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair

He's a little shy so she gives him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talking to me, I'm feeling a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you

CHORUS:
I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter said
A soldier's coming home

So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart it might be love
And all of the things he was so scared of

He said when it's gettin' kind of rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for awhile

(Chorus)

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said "Folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead"

Cryin' all alone under the stands
Was the piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read and nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

(Chorus)

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN BILLY CAME BACK (Burt/Champion)
From: GUEST,alinact
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 03:08 PM

A couple of Aussie songs. The first was recorded by Leslie Avril, and I'm guessing that one of the authors is Greg Champion, a Melbourne singer/songwriter.

WHEN BILLY CAME BACK (Burt/Champion)

When I knew Bill
he was an old man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
Remembrance Day,
I wore his medals.
He came back
to carry on.

Now Billy was a boy in 1914.
Grew up working the farm at Diamond Creek.
Rode his horse to school across the ranges.
Gave him memories his heart would keep.

And when the Lighthorse came to call,
no, he didn't have to think at all.

When billy came back
he was a young man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
There were the things
he never spoke of.
When Billy came back
to carry on.

Never mind the pain and hopeless slaughter.
Never mind the days that have no end.
Three years a'lookin' back across the water.
In a world of pain and death and men.

But the tale he would always tell,
was their pity as the horses fell.

When Billy came back
he was a young man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
From poison gas
his lungs were broken.
When Billy came back
to carry on.

Down amongst the dark and muddy trenches,
Billy wrote his letters to his home.
His mother kept them bound in silken ribbon
till the day when marching home he'd come.

He said "They put on quite a show,
but the truth I would never know".

When Billy came back
he was a young man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
There were the things
he never spoke of.
When Billy came back
to carry on.

But this could not destroy
the loving heart of a country boy.

When Billy came back
he was a young man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
From poison gas
his lungs were broken.
When Billy came back
to carry on.

When Billy came back
he was a young man.
His head was high,
his heart was strong.
There were the things
he never spoke of.
When Billy came back
to carry on.

The second song was written, I believe, not long after Eric Bogle's "Band Played ..." and gives the Turkish perspective of the landing at Anzac Cove. I've had these lyrics written down for a long time, but never wrote down the title, author or performer (although on the page its written on is the name Paul Hamphill). Any information greatly appreciated.

Allan

WATCHERS OF THE WATER?(P Hamphill?)

Sun's fiery furnace
beating on our backs
as we fixed our sharpened bayonets
and shouldered hidden packs.

We marched in ordered file
to destiny that day.
To a land God had forgotten
due east of Suvla Bay.

And in hills so rough and rugged,
we pulled our guns by hand.
Raised the shells upon our shoulders
to the heights we must command.

We watched and prayed and waited;
each heart beating like a drum.
we all had our eyes on the seaward horizon,
to west, where they would come.

And the cold moon she rose on
the watchers of the water.
The stars hung brightly
high above the trees.
And in the warm night tide
sheep came to the slaughter
from their land so
far away across the sea.

And when night fell, oh
she fell so soft and silent.
We could have been in the
garden of paradise.
And no man raised his voice,
not a soul made a noise,
though our blood ran
as cold, as cold, as ice.

And the cold moon she rose on
the watchers of the water.
The stars hung brightly
high above the trees.
And in the warm night tide
sheep came to the slaughter
from their land so
far away across the sea.

The cruel moon light
upon the water glistened,
and enrapt
in all of our hopes and fears.
And in the warm night tide
oh, we watched and listened,
with sharpened eyes
and very, very frightened ears.

And we saw small boats come sailing
from ships far out to sea.
And the shells came at us, playing
an infernal symphony.

And with fists of fire and steel
we were hammered that night.
And many great men went to God
without a chance to fight.
And as the boats drew nearer, oh
we watched with baited breath,
and we waited for the order
at our turn to deal with death.

And the cold moon she rose on
the watchers of the water.
The stars hung brightly
high above the trees.
And in the warm night tide
sheep came to the slaughter
from their land so
far away across the sea.

From their land so far away across the sea!

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Cluin
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 11:32 PM

Dick Gaughan originally released that one long ago on his classic "Kist O' Gold" album. But good luck finding it. Another victim of CM Distribution.

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 01:41 PM

I'd toss in this one to think about (not necessarily the best;
there are _too_ many excellent choices to choose from):

51st (Highland) Division's Farewell To Sicily

Written by Hamish Henderson, with an eerie pipe music tune
by Pipe-Major J. Robertson. It's on Dick Gaughan's
album "Sail On". Gives me the shivers.

Some links on Dick Gaughan's page (above) tell more about the
song. Hearing Dick Gaughan on it, he talks about the soldiers
leaving Sicily ... but they're not off home; but rather off
to the mainland for the next battle. . . . And there's
always a "next battle".


Another person who's written more than one song
about war and such is: Fred Small


Cheers,

                            -- Arne Langsetmo

Cheers,

                               -- Arne Langsetmo

Subject: RE: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: bfolkemer
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 11:25 PM

Some other good ones are "The Wars in High Germany," sung by Jean Redpath, "Will You Go to Flanders," performed by Providence, and in an updated version, by Andy M. Stewart; and "The Banks of the Nile," sung by either Planxty or De Dannan, as well as Ewan MacColl. In fact, he included versions of the first two in his compilation of Scottish ballads. "I Will Go," performed by the Corries and others, has a different twist. The highland men serve the king in the armed forces, but afterward return to their homes to find that they have been destroyed, and their families have been victims of the clearances.

We've often been singing "Let Peace Prevail," from a recent edition of SingOut!

Beth

Subject: Lyr Add: FOR THE FALLEN (T O'Brien and P Aaberg)
From: John Hardly
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 09:55 PM

FOR THE FALLEN
From Two Journeys
(©1999 Tim O'Brien and Phillip Aaberg, Howdy Skies Music/Universal Music Pub/Big Open Music/ASCAP)


The seeds of this war were sewn in our father's time
And every bomb will plant some more fear and hate
Let's break this chain of history before it gets too late

How many men will choose to run with the mad dog
How many more will have to die at his bloody hand
And who will shield our children from this plague that kills our land

I close my eyes and ears, don't want the news
I will not watch them play the scenes again
Don't ask me who's side I'm on, or what I think about it
Cause I don't want to play that game, I'm not buyin in

What do you need to get through the daytime
What do you need to get through the night
Who made these rules and who's to say who's wrong and who is right

Subject: Lyr Add: 1000 CANDLES 1000 CRANES (Rich Priezioso)
From: John Hardly
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 09:52 PM

1000 CANDLES 1000 CRANES
Rich Priezioso, 1998 Tatertunes Music

My grandmother had three sones
She dreamed about her children's children
Then came 1941
Only one son would see the war end

Joseph died marching in Bataan
Frank on the sands of Iwo Jima
The day the bomb destoyed Japan
She thanked God and Harry Truman

She blamed the godless Japanese
For having crushed her sweetest dreams
One thousand candles for my sons
Every day I will remember

In Illinois, far from her past
Miss Nakamura still remembers
She was six when she saw the flash
That turned the world to smoke and ashes

Mother taught her daughter well
Run from the fire to the river
There she found a living hell
But not a mother or a father

Though she survived with just a scrape
Her family vanished into space
One thousand suns, one thousand cranes
Everyday I will remember

My grndmother had three sons
She never dreamed she'd have a daughter
But at the age of eighty-one
She met a nurse named Nakamura

It was a question only meant
To make some talk and pass the hours
About a picture by the bed
A photograph of two young soldiers

Hatred and anger stored for years
Slowly melted into tears
One thousand candles, a thousand cranes
Everyday I will remember

I've a picture in my mind
Of two women slowly walking
August 6th, 1985
Walking to church to light a candle

And they once asked me to explain
Why grown men play such foolish games
One thousand candles, a thousand cranes
Everyday I will remember.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: breezy
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 07:55 PM

my pleasure jnz,Herga FC Mon .?