Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: pastorpest
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 06:23 PM

Ï really like the Bogle songs as well. But the peace march I was on today in our small Canadian prairie city began with singing Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I had the Srangest Dream" and Sy Miller's and Jill Jackson's "Let There Be Peace on Earth." People, including non singer types learned the McCurdy song quickly.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From:
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 04:51 PM

thanks, breezy.

Jack

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: breezy
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 02:01 PM

'The Year of The Drum' was written by Wendy Joseph, a Kiwi living in Adelaide
The town is Manum which lost more men per head population in both world wars than any other in South Australia.
Martin learned it from a Richard Avery from Toronto
Its on the album 'A Rose From The bush' 1984

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RED FEAST (Ralph Chapin)
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 01:12 PM

"The Red Feast" by Ralph Chapin. It is, correctly, a poem but has been set to music. It was written in 1912 or 13 and was a protest against the madness in Europe which became WWI. The poem is printed in the original "Little Red Song Book", published by the IWW.

I can't remember it all but enough to give you an idea of it's unrelenting anger at war and war's "masters". I
believe it was 10 or 12 verses in all.

The Red Feast
Raplh Chapin

Go fight you fools
Tear up the earth with strife
And spill each other's guts
upon the field.
Serve unto death
The men you served in life,
So that THEIR wide dominions
May not yield.

Stand by the flag
The lie that still allures
Lay down your lives for land
You do not own
And give unto
A war that is not yours
Your gory tithe
Of mangled flesh and bone

But whether in the fray
To fall or kill
You do not dare to
Question why or where
You see those tiny crosses on that hill?
It took all those to save one millionare!

It was for him the sea of blood was shed
That fields were razed
And cities lit the sky
That he might come
And chortle o'er the dead
That condor thing
For whom the millions die

The last verse, as I remember it was:

Then you will know that Nation's but a name
And bounderies are things that don't exist
And mankind's bondage, worldwide, is the same
and WAR the enemy he must resist.

CB

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 08:59 AM

"Handsome Johnny"
"My son John"
"D Day dodgers"
Giok

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Strupag
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 08:38 AM

By the time i got to this thread, all my favourites have been suggested.
Sad thing about Eric Bogle's "No man's land" is, that when the Irish bands covered it they decided to change the title to "Green Fields of France" as the title, "N M L " had political overtones over there. The also changed the line "When the rifles fire o'er ye" as that had also political overtones.


Andy

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: cetmst
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 06:53 AM

Agree with most mentioned above:
Band Played Waltzing Matilda
No Man's Land
Mothers, Daughters, Wives
Dancing At Whitsun
With God on Our Side
Where Have All the Flowers Gone
And many others - Add:
Rosemary's Sister by Huw Williams
When Princes Meet by Tom Paxton
Dead Girl of Hiroshima (I Come and Stand at Every Door) by
Nazim Hikmet and James Waters
Just a Roll of the Drum as done by Fairport Convention
Writing of Tiperary by B. Caddick
And on a lighter side, Take Off Your Clothes by Mark Levy
Would make a great album

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: chouxfleur
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 03:12 AM

There are so many, but one for me is JIMMY NEWMAN by Tom Paxton.

Without writing the whole song its about an injured soldier talking to his friend whom he thinks is asleep. The last line is something like (from memory)

Wake up Jimmy Newman and show them you heard,
I tell 'em you sleep hard but they're shaking their heads
And you've only to open your eyes
And you've only to open your eyes.....


Powerful stuff eh??

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 01:21 AM

#1 is "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", especially as performed by the composer, Eric Bogle.

Add to the list of good 'uns:

Steve Goodman's "Ballad of Penny Evans"

Malvina Reynold's (I think) "What Have They Done to The Rain"

Subject: Lyr Add: CRUEL WAR (from Peter, Paul & Mary)
From: Kaleea
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 01:09 AM

Since I'm half Irish (other half blarney), I usually turn to the Irish ballads in times of anti war songs.
I've always liked the simplicity of John Lennon's 2 chord song. Once the Smothers Brothers were talking about being up on the balcony with John leading the crowd in this song, and Tommy was doing all kinds of creative versions of a D chord, and John mildly chastised him saying just play a regular D chord, man, this is about something very basic & simple:

All we are saying, is "give peace a chance." etc.


Here's one sung by Peter, Paul & Mary:

CRUEL WAR

The Cruel War is raging, Johnny has to fight
I want to be with him from morning to night.
I want to be with him, it grieves my heart so,
Won't you let me go with you?
No, my love, no.

Tomorrow is Sunday, Monday is the day
that your Captain will call you and you must obey.
Your captain will call you it grieves my heart so,
Won't you let me go with you?
No, my love, no.

I'll tie back my hair, men's clothing I'll put on,
I'll pass as your comrade, as we march along.
I'll pass as your comrade, no one will ever know.
Won't you let me go with you?
No, my love, no.

Oh Johnny, oh Johnny, I fear you are unkind
I love you far better than all of mankind.
I love you far better than words can e're express
Won't you let me go with you?
Yes, my love, yes.

Yes, My Love, Yes.


And then there is the ever popular:


Look At The Coffin

Look at the coffin with its golden handles.
Isn't it grand, boys, to be bloody well dead.

chorus:
Let's not have a sniffel
Let's have a bloody good cry.
And always remember the longer you live,
the sooner you'll bloody well die.

Look at the flowers, all blody withered,
Isn't it grand boys, to be bloody well dead.

chorus

Look at the mourners, bloody great hypocrites,
isn't it grand boys to be bloody well dead.

chorus

Look at the preacher, bloody santimonious,
Isn't it grand boys to be bloody well dead.

chorus

They sing about glory, and honor the war,
Isn't it grand boys to be bloody well dead.

chorus

Subject: Lyr Add: GENTLEMEN OF DISTINCTION IN THE ARMY
From: Susan A-R
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:12 PM

I have had the Malvina Reynolds song Gentlemen of Distinction in the Army
in my mind a lot lately

I had a lovely dream I saw a big parade with ticker tape galore
And men were marching there the likes I'd never seen before
Oh the bankers and the diplomats are going in the army
Oh happy day I'd give my pay to see them on parade
With their paunches at attention and their striped pants at ease
They've gotten patriotic and they're going over seas
We'll have to do the best we can and bravely carry on
So we'll just keep the laddies here to mannage while they're gone

Chorus Oh we hate to see them go the gentlemen of distinction in the army

Oh the bankers and the diplomats are going in the army
It seems a shame to keep them from the wars they love to plan
We're really quite contented that they'll fight a dandy war
They don't need propaganda, they know what we're fighting for
They'll march along with dignity and in the best of form
And we'll just keep the laddies here to keep the lassies warm

Chorus

Oh the bankers and the diplomats are going in the army
We'll have to do things differently, it's all so new and strange
We'll give them silver shovels when they have to dig a hole
And they can sing in harmony when answering the roll
They'll eat their old k rations from a hand embroidered box
And when they die, we'll bring 'em home and burry 'em in fort Knox

Chorus

I wonder why I've had that one running through my head so much lately.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:56 PM

Hey, y'all, this is a bit of thread-creep, but what if we put together a cd of Mudcats or others singing these songs and donated any proceeds to a peacemaking cause? Remember, you heard it from me, here. Amos? Joe?

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:53 PM

Two more just skipped into my head and then skipped out again while I was reading the new posts to this thread. If they pop in again, I'll post them. Oh, one is Bob Coltman's "Valley Forge":

To live I'm too cold,
To die I'm too young.
This life is too short
To be over and done.
Is this the last winter
That I'll ever see?
I don't care for no God
Who don't care for me.

So don't you think we should beat the drum
Or raise some kind of row?
Ain't this glorious war
Fell on hard times now?

And the other is a John Gorka song called "Temporary Road":

He is skating on a river
That's been frozen since December:
He's a soldier on a river off to war

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Jazzyjack
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:26 PM

What ? ? Not even a mention of Phil Ochs' most popular anti-Vietnam war songs " I Ain't Marching Anymore " and " Is There Anybody Here ? " ? . I am singing them tomorrow at a peace rally in Nanaimo B.C. Canada. Who remembers the lyrics or should I supply them. For shame ! !

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: breezy
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:15 PM

the Drum is credited on M-W-R's album which I'll look out tomorw.
I dont think its that widely known.
btw its 'hames' to do with attaching the horse to the cart not paint
soory but they are 'carved pieces of wood by which the traces of a horse are attached to the collar'
Thank you for posting the words.
Good to see Jimmy Newman there, I was smitten by Denvers interpretation.
Erics 2 are classics but to my mind it was June Tabor's uncluttered singing of them as on her 'Anthology ' album that didit for me.
Mike Deavin has 2 creditable songs' The Soldier's story' and 'Blood on the Sand' but you wont find him easily.
Then the one that starts:
'If you see a soldier covered all in medals' with a chorus that goes
'How about you folks out there you people looking on
Are you heroes are you cowards would you say?
If they stuck a rifle in your hand and sent you to the war
Would you be brave or would you run the other way?'
Brad Bradstock stopped the show with this one at out folk club and he's back in April
Then ther 'When the boys are on Parade' by Marcus turner and sung by Andy Irvine on 'Way out Yonder' hes at the club on 11th april after Brad
St Albans Herts., Eng

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Scotty B
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:54 PM

I certainly agree Eric Bogle probably has first place with his many songs but a couple not yet mentioned are

The Island by Paul Brady and The Town I Lovewd so Wel by Phil Coulter

Scotty

Subject: Lyr Add: MARIA DIAZ (Lenny Galant)
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:34 PM

This one doesn't appear to be in the DT or forum:

MARIA DIAZ
(Lenny Galant)

Maria Diaz is only nine
Yet she's seen enough hard times
To last a hundred lifetimes, maybe more
Seen children die so young, peasants fall beneath the gun
Heard a nation cry for justice in a war

Somoza's guards did come one day
Took her father far away
He was put into a truck with many more
No reason did they give as to why he should not live
He's just another peasant in a war

Maria cries to sleep at night
She says she dreams in black and white
Her mother says that coloured dreams will be no more
'til there's freedom in the land, tyrants are forever banned
And they let us build a nation without war

Late one night a gun did sound
There were Contras all around
And they searched the village houses for their prey
Maria's mother did protest, she felt the shot run through her breast
Maria stared in horror where her mother lay

In magazines and on the air
They all talk of war down there
Who the yanks support and who the reds are for
But was she left or was she right when her mother died that night
Or was she just another orphan in a war

Don't look for God up in the skies
You can't see God with closed eyes
They must open to the wounds that lie below
And see the children have a chance
A chance to live, a chance to dance
A chance to dream in colours bright with freedom's glow

Source: Roy Bailey 'Leaves From a Tree' Fuse CF 394. 'Maria Diaz' has been reissued on CD on Roy Bailey 'Past Masters' Fuse CFCD 403.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: The Pooka
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:34 PM

Giok - "As down the glen one Easter morn" sounds to me like the 1916, Easter Rising, edition of "The Foggy Dew". If so (?) - then perhaps not so much generically anti-war, as anti-the-*wrong*-war(s).


It was England bade our Wild Geese go
That small nations might be free
Now their lonely graves are by Suvla's wave
Or the fringe of the great north sea.
But had they died by Pearse's side
Or fought with Valera true
Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep
'Neath the hills of the foggy dew.

(Or - have I got the wrong song/version?)

On a different note -- they are characteristic black-humor Tom Lehrer satire, but *I* think they still fit the category; so I nominate "We Will All Go Together When We Go" and "So Long Mom". (Hope I got the titles right.)

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: limejuice
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 03:49 PM

A more lighthearted anti-war song is the "feel like I'm fixing to die rag"... not claiming it's the best, but it's sure fun to sing!

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 03:47 PM

"Side of a hill" Paul Simon
"The Kerry Recruit" Traditional
"Stand Firm"   Leon Rosselson
Can't remember the name,it starts.
"As down the glen one Easter morn."
Can I also throw in a poem. "The naming of parts"
Giok

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,jaze
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 02:24 PM

"All we are saying, is give peace a chance." Simple,mournful and to the point.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Strafgod
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 01:53 PM

I stand corrected on the authorship of Come Away Melinda, (but it is Melinda, not Matilda). Thanks Frankham.

Thanks Stewie and Catspaw for reminding me of Jimmy Clay - hadn't heard the song in decades reading the lyrics, was, like a Proustian moment.

Story of Isaac! Thanks again Stewie.

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.

Universal Soldier.

Gulf War Song by Moxy Fruvous.

Strafgod <--loving this thread

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 12:15 PM

Another humble submission...

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Frankham
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 12:07 PM

Come Away Matilda was written by Fred Hellerman (of the Weavers)
and Fran Minkoff. It's on Weavers recordings.

I think a song that should be included is Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy.

Frank

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: mg
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 11:47 AM

Year of the drum is an awesome song...and I usually don't believe in tampering with someone else's song but I did anyway because it seemed another generation was calling....

His name was Joseph and I am his father I went to the big one and came out all right
And the last thing I thought of when I was in combat was someday I'd send my own boy off to fight
And then I remember the birth of my son and oh how I prayed he would not hear the gun
But his number was called and in 71 they sent his remains to the Murray...

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:20 AM

Add more votes to Bogle's pair (No Man's Land and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda). And the Prines that have been mentioned as well. I never saw Draft Dodger Rag as an anti-war song. It's from Ochs's superpatriot stage and I've never been convinced he had his tongue in his cheek. I think he really was poking at draft dodgers (love to be wrong of course). Fixin' To Die Rag is pretty good too.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Puffenkinty
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:07 AM

ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC TONIGHT

1st verse:
All quiet along the Potomac tonight
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot as he walks on his beat to and fro
By a rifleman hid in the thicket;
'Tis nothing, a private or two now and then,
'Twil not count in the news of the battle,
Not an officer lost, only one of the men
Moaning out all alone the death rattle;
All quiet along the Potomac tonight.

I think this is pretty accurate. Those in high ranks
declare war, and the poor "grunt" pays the price.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Cluin
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 08:50 AM

Gordon Lightfoot's "The Patriot's Dream"

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Jim Colbert
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 08:13 AM

Reunion Hill by Richard Shindell. Arguably, it is not an anti-war song...just a song about a war widow. (Joan Baez claims it is her favorite anti war song!)

Especially the newer, slow way he does it live...

jim

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:28 AM

"There But for Fortune" is a really beautiful song I haven't thought of in a long time. Thanks for the reminder!

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:21 AM

All of the above plus Elvis Costello's 'Shipbuilding' about the futility of the Falklands War, especially as sung by Robert Wyatt.

BJ

Subject: Lyr Add: JIMMY CLAY (Patrick Sky)
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 04:55 AM

Lots of worthy nominees......Not all come at it from the same angle of course so Masters of War to me is on par with, but in a different vein than The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Both make my Top Five. Christmas in the Trenches makes the list as well and coming out of left field I like Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag. Topping the list for me, as already mentioned by Stewie is Pat Sky's Jimmy Clay. If you didn't click the link, here are the words:

JIMMY CLAY
(Patrick Sky)(c) Rabelaisian Music, Inc.

When you walk down the street, who will follow you?
Six o'clock, its getting late.
The moon it is rising as the sticky dew
Molds on the ground by the gate.
With your rifle on your shoulder as you walk along
Listening to your boot-heels hit the sod
Smoking your cigar as you hum a song
Thinking of your mother, and your God

Ah, but you're alone, Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and earn your pay.
And fifteen thousand soldiers are marching by your side
Still you're alone, Jimmy Clay.

And remember New York town, good old New York town?
The friends, the drinks, the cops and all
And the whores who took your money when you couldn't stand
And all the roaring nights you can't recall?
And remember Alice Fay, good old Alice Fay?
She'd been through life at least ten times around
And when she said she loved you, well she meant it, boy
Remember the night you nearly drowned?

Ah, but you're alone, Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and think of yesterday
Well, yesterday don't matter when its gone away
Where did it go, Jimmy Clay?

So as you lie there in the mud, who will talk to you?
Nobody, Jimmy Clay
For when you're gone mankind follows after you
Doesn't it, Jimmy Clay?
And your face is growing moldy where they kissed your cheek
And said "Please die for us, Jimmy Clay"
And so you died a soldier and a hero's death
Congratulations, Jimmy Clay.

Now you're alone, Jimmy Clay
You can smoke your cigar, and earn your pay
And somewhere in the distance you can hear the fiddle play
But not one note will change, Jimmy Clay

Spaw

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Ringer
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 04:53 AM

Don't want to be too picky, but isn't Masters of War more of an anti-war-profiteering song than an anti-war song?

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 04:14 AM

I would endorse virtually all of the above, and add:

"Child of Hiroshima" by Nazim Hikmet
"There but for Fortune" by Phil Ochs

plus, on the lighter side:

"The Willing Conscript" by Tom Paxton
"Draft Dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs
"I don't want to join the army" Anon

Alan

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 02:15 AM

I agree that 'Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya' would be hard to beat. Of the more recent songs, Pat Sky's Jimmy Clay is probably my favourite, just ahead of Cohen's 'Story of Isaac'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: open mike
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 02:08 AM

Christmas in the Trenches-John Mc Cutcheon
Singing for our Lives-Holly Near
Great Peace March-Holly Near
There were Roses-Tommy Sands
We Shall Not Be Moved --by???
Ain't Gonna Study War No More (Down by the Riverside)
and on Tom Paxton's latest album:
Links in the Chain--by Kate Wolf
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Pete Seeger
Dona Nobis Pacem
Vine and Fig Tree
And I hope to sing all of these at the rally saturday!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE YEAR OF THE DRUM (Wendy Joseph)
From:
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 01:43 AM

A few really great songs been mentioned.

Not offering this as the best but it's an interesting one.

The town of Mannim(sp?) reputedly had the highest percentage deaths of any town anywhere which sent men to WW1.

I have't been able to find an author. I believe Martin Wyndham Reed sings it


The Year Of The Drum

Now my name is Jack Gresham, I was brought up in Mannim
That river boat town I loved well
I married Meg Davis we had us two children
One day our family bliss turned to hell
'Twas in 1915 and the year of the drum
The guns and the government called me to come
Past Mannim I look at the tall shining gums
I'm drifting away down the Murray

Now my name is Meg Davis and I work at Shearers
With saddles and waggons and paint
And the men are all fighting, the war it is raging
The women toil here making fuel for the flames
For it's 1916 and the men are all gone
They're fighting in Europe so we carry on
We're keeping the candles lit bright here at home
To light their way back up the Murray

Now my name is Mary and I am an orphan
My father was killed in the war
My ma was Meg Davis, an upstanding lady
She drowned in the Murray the year I turned four
'Twas in 1918 that the telegram came
The death of a soldier it's news did proclaim
My ma lost her footing to the tears and the rain
She slipped on the banks of the Murray

Now my name is Billy and I am a soldier
I just got my orders today
My wife's name is Mary, she's fair as a sunset
I hate to be leaving her lonely this way
But the year's forty two, and the year of the drum
The guns and the government called me to come
Past Mannim I look at the tall shining gums
I'm drifting away down the Murray

But the year doesn't matter, there's always the drum
The guns and the government call men to come
The town still grow strong in her tall shining sons
While her daughter's light lamps by the Murray

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHN BROWN (Bob Dylan)
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 12:07 AM

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda and Masters of War are two of my favourites. Kind of like this one too.

John Brown

Bob Dylan

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore.
His mama sure was proud of him!
He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all.
His mama's face broke out all in a grin.

"Oh son, you look so fine, I'm glad you're a son of mine,
You make me proud to know you hold a gun.
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get,
And we'll put them on the wall when you come home."

As that old train pulled out, John's ma began to shout,
Tellin' ev'ryone in the neighborhood:
"That's my son that's about to go, he's a soldier now, you know."
She made well sure her neighbors understood.

She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile
As she showed them to the people from next door.
And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun,
And these things you called a good old-fashioned war.

Oh! Good old-fashioned war!

Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come.
They ceased to come for about ten months or more.
Then a letter finally came saying, "Go down and meet the train.
Your son's a-coming home from the war."

She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around
But she could not see her soldier son in sight.
But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last,
When she did she could hardly believe her eyes.

Oh his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off
And he wore a metal brace around his waist.
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know,
While she couldn't even recognize his face!

Oh! Lord! Not even recognize his face.

"Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done.
How is it you come to be this way?"
He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And the mother had to turn her face away.

"Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home . . . acting proud.
You wasn't there standing in my shoes."

"Oh, and I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here?
I'm a-tryin' to kill somebody or die tryin'.
But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close
And I saw that his face looked just like mine."

Oh! Lord! Just like mine!

"And I couldn't help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink,
That I was just a puppet in a play.
And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke,
And a cannon ball blew my eyes away."

As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock
At seein' the metal brace that helped him stand.
But as he turned to go, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hand.



Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: fox4zero
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 11:57 PM

Ira Hayes as sung by Johnny Cash

Larry

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,hal
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 11:51 PM

let's not forget "morning dew" especially as performed by those gurus of peace, love and happiness, the grateful dead

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: The Pooka
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 11:30 PM

"Willie McBride" should be on the list.

And, I'll throw in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall".

I've always liked this lyric from a version of "Mrs. McGrath" -

Now foreign wars they do proclaim
Between Don John and the King of Spain
I'd rather have me Teddy as he used to be
Than the Queen of France and her whole Navy
Musha ring dum da, ring a dum a da....

Subject: Lyr Add: WAR (Dougie MacLean)
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 10:02 PM

(obviously about the Gulf War)

War
(Dougie MacLean, 1991)

Our voice made silent
Our hands made still
But deep and violent wait the ones who wait to kill

The desert's burning
Their reasons pale
For there's no returning with some golden holy grail

   What have they done?
   What have they done?
   The blood will run to everyone
   Oh, what have they done?

Is it for freedom,
Or is it for truth,
That fathers fall and all those young men trade their youth?

Or are they moved
By deception's hand,
That rank and reckless scatters death across the sand?

   (chorus)

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: mg
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:52 PM

hanging on the old barbed wire mg

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:50 PM

"WAR!
Huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nuthin', say it again..."

Just kidding.

I like Dougie MacLean's song "War".

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM

"Tenting Tonight"
"I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier"
"Enola Gay"..by Bruce Phillips

,,,but Erik Bogle made it all so real..

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM

Your Flag Decal won't get you into Heaven Anymore

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:41 PM

Re: The Ballad of the Green Berets.

Fighting Soldiers from on high.
Fearless Men, who jump and die (!!!)

Damn, I wish those guys had used parachutes!

Rick

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: GUEST,Strafgod
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:30 PM

Come Away Melinda was written by Malvina Reynolds. Kind of anti-apocalyptic rather than anti-war in the pre-nuclear sense...
Where have all the Flowers Gone?
The Minstrel Boy was probably the first song I came across back in the 1950's that struck me as being anti-war. I remember finding it in my grandmother's piano bench, picking out the melody and reading the lyrics and getting quite upset.

Jimmy Newman by Tom Paxton.
But The Band Played Waltzing Matilda is a stunner. My first time hearing it was Joan Baez's version.

Strafgod <-- apologizes if he's broken any posting rules or etiquette, having just bounced in from a posting on rec.music.folk and, intrigued by the thread, just went ahead and posted without the requisite lurking, reading the faq, and paying proper attention to the rest of this great site!

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: sharyn
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:12 PM

Insanity Street by Lillie Palmer is very good:

"And we talk of the coming of peace,
Of a time when hostilities cease,
But we make and we store all the weapons of war
'Cause we live on Insanity Street."

And also Suzanne Vega's "The Queen and the Soldier"

And, for traditional songs, "The Weary Cutters."

And there's a brilliant song called "The King's Shilling" that Jean Redpath sings

And for smaller-scale war, "There Were Roses."

Subject: RE: Review: Greatest Anti-War Song Ever?
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 08:56 PM

Dancing at Whitsun
D-Day Dodgers