Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
War And Peace Songs
In less than the space of week, we've seen the Russian Army on the move ,tensions rising and perhaps, the prospect of another Cold War (or something worse) on the horizion. Worrying times, but this isn't the place for political debate-And I'm certainly not the person to chair one!
It has however, made me think however about war and peace songs by artists/ groups / composers. The obvious ones by John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen spring to mind, John William's Star Wars too and Eric Coate's "Dambusters", all pretty amazing pieces of music, but more unusual, obscure suggestions most welcome;"Forgotten Songs" and "Easter" by Marillion for example, written during Northern Ireland's problems.
For those on holiday, this may be seem a bleak thread, but surely some inspirational songs and music have come out of war and helped morale for those who have had the horror to be involved in one. Quick, march right, all musical genres welcome and any type of war/conflict-sci-fi too.See you on the other side.
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Fish
Apologies to Marillion, should read "Forgotten Sons".
War...
war is stupid...and (now you ask) people are stupid, And love means nothing, In some strange quarters.
Nuff said!
oh and now i think about it
War war is stupid
And people are stupid
And I heard them banging
On hearts and fingers
it gets worse
People fill the world
With narrow confidence
Like a child at birth
A man with no defense
Whats mine is my own
I wont give it to you
No matter what you say
No matter what you do
Now were fighting
In our hearts
Fighting in the street
Wont somebody help me?
?
Who is this by?
David,.you lucky, lucky man
The War Song is without doubt the lowest moment in Boy George's career!
if you've never heard it i strongly reccomend that you keep it that way.
Ta
It does ring a bell now and I remember it now,this tunes going to haunt me all day at work now!
Absolutely
nothing!
A spot of bother with the Germans
The story of World War II in two jolly songs:
And...now...it's...Springtime for Hitler:
But we plucky Brits fight back with Wild Billy Childish and "Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?":
http://www.divshare.com/download/5171157-70b
But to get serious for a minute folks, here's my favourite war song - the Pogues version of Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda":
And here is another version......
(Caution, there may well be flying debris in the room, watch those eyes. They may water.)
excellent choice on the Poges there, Nick
somewhere down the page, i've said nobody'd suggested this already. You did. Apologies!
Ivan:
Listen to the June Tabor version, even if you don't get round to Eric Bogles original.
It's compulsory.
will do
Mr Path, sir...
*salutes*
Stand easy, soldier!
Good, innit?
aye - haunting
foudn it on limescale, and will be sourcing legit source as soon as!
It's on Emusic, for buttons...
Along with a lot of June's stuff. She's a 'phone book' singer. Can I recommend The King Of Rome off Aqaba? You'd never think the travails of a pigeon fancier in Edwardian Derby would have you gulping back tears. Wondrous stuff. Good call, Retro old son.
King Of Rome
Half man half biscuit recorded a version for a Peel Session. Little known fact, the King Of Rome was written by a David Sudbury for a national songwriting competition in the late 80's (it came 4th).
Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda":
Quite simply One of the Best songs ever written.The June Tabor version is Spellbinding. I remember John Peel putting it in his top 5 in an early Edition of Smash Hits and going out and buying it on an Album whose name i can't remember.
Poignant
Never heard that Pogues song before, very moving and wonderful.
Let's not forget...
He was the best
God bless Curtis.
An interesting take on an established classic
Can I be the first to say...
...that The Roots frickin' rock?
Of course you can
Seeing as no one responded at all for two weeks!
Tom Waits - "Day After Tomorrow"
This
'nuff said
Moving
Who is the singer on this please?
June Tabor
June Tabor singing No Man's Land (sometimes called Willie McBride)
Cheers
Thanks for that Corporal. Stand Easy.
Thanks
for posting this - in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written, sung by one of the greatest singers.
Is it worth it ...?
A Perfect Circle - Fiddle and the Drum
What's Going On (A genuinely worthwhile cover too!)
(What's so funny 'bout) peace love and understanding
All from e-motive.
Good under-rated album
Mainly covers of songs about the human cost of war with only two original songs. I listen to it on a nearly regular basis.
War. What is it good for?
It's good for business. Sir William Bragg banging a nail so hard it hurts.
Honourable mentions for Shipbuilding (both versions are spot on) and Easter Parade by criminally underrated The Faith Brothers. Best you tube clip I could find below.
The Easter Parade...
Love that track. I had it on a double single pack of The Country of the blind. Only recently managed to get a mp3 from Billy Franks himself. Nice to see someone else liked their music.
I downloaded the Billy Franks MP3's
as a result of remembering that song. Saw them supporting U2 and they were the best thing on a very wet day.
Mars
Some excellent clips, suppose you could mention Holsts's "Mars" The Bringer Of War too. Apparently Gustav didn't rate The most popular. Mind, this is a common scenario for lots of artists etc.
Brothers In Arms
I don't really understand why Mark Knopfler is held in such low esteem by Word bloggers. He strikes me as one of the most solid and enduring talents to emerge in the seventies and he continues to hone his songwriting skills to this day. As a guitarist he has few peers. But even Fish out of Marillion and Boy George get flagged for their war songs sooner than this obvious gem written in response to the Falklands' War:
Isn't it time there was a call for a full reappraisal of Mark's career in the magazine? Even if it is only to explore his role as one of the few foils and producers who illuminated Dylan's wilderness years.
Full reappraisal of Mark's career in the magazine?
Seconded.
MMM
I'll third that, nice to see that video again!
Quarted
I loved Sailing to Philadephia.....but he has the habit of sounding a bit monocultured
Monocultured?
I suppose that the Geordie in his voice limits him a little but wasn't his collaboration with Emmylou evidence of an empathy with country. The single, This Is Us, was one for the ages.
...sneakily posts this then runs away...
Good to see
RT get a rare mention on this site. Criminally overlooked by Word readers, I feel.
Yes, he does get the odd mention...
doesn't he?! Makes up for all those years of "Richard who?"...
Whilst we're sneaking....
I ain't got time for that now
Here's a great song about life during wartime:
Pink Floyd 'Us And Them'
I think this is relevant too....
With a version I hadn't heard from the excellent David Ford
Can't find the Kate Rusby/Kathryn Roberts version, bleakset of all 3.
surely...
about 1 minute in...
Not enough Todd
around here these days :
i don't think anybody's mentioned
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, by the Pogues.
Ne'er do well mooches about Australia
Ne'er do well gets called up and sent to Gallipoli
Ne'er do well gets legs blown off along with a sod of a lot of comerades
Ne'er do well comes home to a country that appears less than impressed.
By the by
I was watching Francesco's Mediterranean last night and he visited Gallipoli. The site of the beach, surrounded by high sandy cliffs, made clear how suicidal an attack was. The ordnance, and what looked like a human jaw bone, still scattered in the sand were pretty sobering too.
Well, not for nearly a day.....
;-)
Here's the original, Eric Bogle.
He also wrote this:
No Mans Land
also sometimes known as "The Green Fields Of France", or as my pal called it "Willie Mcbride" when he first played it to me.
Wonderful song!!
I have cover versions by The Men They Couldn't Hang and The Dropkick Murphys.
always known as 'Willie McBride' around these parts
it's pretty much guaranteed, as a wedding winds down in the West of Ireland that a few lads will be left sitting around, the ladies have all gone upstairs to bed, the barman is trying to clear the place, and somebody will kick off the sing-song with it...
i know its pedigree
is referred to earlier in this thread, but I first heard this by the Skids - I forget the name of the album - it was the one after Stuart Adamson had quit...
Joy.
Name of the album was Joy.
Have we mentioned this one?
Timmy Thomas - Why Can't We Live Together? As covered by Sade. Clip features gratuitous female in bikini - really no excuse for it:
Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why......
Also covered recently and very well by Maria Muldaur (yes, that one) on her latest. Other good versions include Joan Osborne, Stev(i)e Winwood and Kyle, son of Clint, Eastwood.
Whatever happened to Timmy Thomas? Has he ever done owt else?
The Holmes Brothers
My favourite version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding" is a soul version by the Holmes Brothers. You should be able to listen to it here:
http://tinyurl.com/5naudl
(Actually this comes a close second to Nick Lowe's own live rendition on that BBC4 session the other night, which was absolutely beautiful.)
Wow!!!
Fabulous. Have just checked out "State of Grace", its parent album and it looks and sounds, from the snippets, essential.
I had only got their version of Beast of Burden before, but I think some proper purchasing is now required. Thanks, Nick.
'Chance of anything coming from Mars, million to one, you say?'
'I'll have a quid each way'
Concept album all about war
Elvis Costello
is rightly praised for Shipbuilding but Peace in our Time was equally praiseworthy. I recall seeing him at the Birmingham Odean with the attractions around 1982 and he came on for the encore alone with his acoustic guitar and sang it. You could hear a pin drop. You have to remember this was still in the middle of the cold war and around the time the Korean 747 was shot down so the relevance was pretty sharp.
Great blog - dont understand however why we shouldn't debate the current crisis on here.I know it is slightly out of the ambience of the site but the Maggie Thatcher blog got a lot of interest.
Randy Newman/Steve Earle
Mr Satire himself -
and Mr Outspoken -
For The People Of Ireland
Just been taping all these great clips of music, war does seem to make a wonderful compilation of music. Here's another one, hate bands wearing their own t-shirts though. Does anyone know how to record off you tube digitally as it were onto their hard drive. Guess I will face court martial for this!
Re ripping audio off YouTube...
I'm not sure it's 100% legal and the audio quality can be variable, but http://vidtomp3.com/ works really well. Sorry if I've landed you in court, Fraser
I Salute You
Ta for that, it'll take me a while to work out no doubt!
I've no idea about the above programme.....
......but you can record any sound that comes out of your soundcard to your hard drive using a free and easy to use programme called Audacity.
Try again
Don McLean doesn't really get his propers round these parts
This always struck me as really powerful. Warning : a couple of the pics in the slideshow are pretty gruesome
Sorry - I couldn't resist!!!
Words can't do this justice...shuffling away, head held down feeling ashamed...
The Remembrance - Jake Thackray
http://www.jakethackray.com/content/view/104/26/
Quo Army
Had to include this one!
The World At War
A couple of musical/historical documents...
Spike Jones mocks "Der Fuehrer's Face":
Noel Coward sings "Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans":
Stan Ridgway- Camouflage
Semper Fi!!!............
Unknown Soldier by Roy Harper
Here's a little sample of the lyrics. As wonderful an anti - war song as ever there was.
I am an old soldier
I've been in the wars
Backwards and forwards
Creeping on all fours....
And another:
....and somewhere there's a button
and a silent satellite
and a bastard who would press it
and an everlasting night
Video footage of Unknown Soldier
I cant believe no-one has listed Chris De Burgh yet...tut tut
Give war a chance
Our man in the cockpit, Lemmy Kilminster
"Shoot to kill and we always will"
Geopolitical insight from Messrs Osbourne, Iommi etc
Funky Machine gun from Lionel and the Commodores
Declaring war on good taste...it's the Army Of Lovers
I have to say, I'm pretty ambivalent about anti-war songs in general. For every "Shipbuilding" there's a "Through the barricades" and pompous generalities seem to outnumber genuine insights.
Having said that, I would not hesitate to nominate Paul Brady's "The Island" as a beautiful example of how it should be done...
The Real Challenge: PRO-War Songs
I don't advocate war, but from a songwriting point of view, surely writing popular anti-war songs is considerably easier than writing popular pro-war songs. So, to the challenge: are there any convincing pro-war songs? By "convincing" I mean not just using cheap shock tactics, but something that has you catching yourself enjoying violent sentiments.
The movie analogy would be something like "Play Misty For Me", where, such is the skill of the movie-makers, even the most mild-mannered viewers find themselves urging Clint to beat his unwelcome admirer to a pulp.
The most likely source of answers I imagine to be found around the various causes which have assumed a romanticism in certain quarters (and I stress, not in my quarters!) such as Irish Freedom Fighters, the PLO, and various Central American groups.
The mists of time help to take an edge off this: I can't imagine anyone getting any empathy with a song about a bomb concealed in a school waste paper bin, whereas you can go back a few centuries and quite effectively sing
and
Now for black Fitzwilliam's head
We'll send it o'er, dripping red
To Queen Liza and her ladies"
as Planxty did in their rendition of Follow Me Up To Carlow.
And that's my suggestion. Any more?
War and Peace
Don't You Go by John Martyn ( from Glorious Fool ) should be on any list of anti war songs. very wistful and understated but all the more powerful for it.
Spot on with the Paul Brady
but Christy Moore wrote a great response to that song called "The Other side" on his "Unfinished Revolution" album - couldn't find it on YouTube but it contains the immortal lines..
"Only the very safe can talk about wrong or right,
of those who are forced to choose, some, will choose to fight"
Always seemed an elegant point though I probably agree more with the Paul Brady view.
There can be only one...
I'm at work so I haven't got time to scour YouTube for clips but here are some fine examples off the top of my head (all, loosely, from an 'americana' perspective):
Drive-By Truckers - Sands Of Iwo Jima
Tom T Hall - Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)
Steve Earle - Ben McCulloch
Michelle Shocked & Uncle Tupelo - Soldier's Joy
John Prine - Sam Stone (or Swamp Dogg's version)
But if you can only be bothered searching for one, you really, really need to seek out:
Marah - Round Eye Blues
Simply the best 'Nam song of all (even beats anything by Bruce). Stupendous lyrics and the arrangement even has a nod to The Ronettes Be My Baby. Brilliant.
Sam Stone, incredible song.
Thanks for reminding me.
You're Welcome
and here's some more:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Through The Jungle
Iron Maiden - Aces High (live version with Churchill speech intro)
Steve Earle - Johnny Come Lately
and another great one, Cold Chisel - Khe Sanh
Ohio by CSNY
A great fave of my daughters
Two stone cold classics about the Oirish "troubles"...
And remember, please don't shoot the messenger...
Foghorn Hadley gets SERIOUS....
And here's young Jim on his soapbox...
War. Huh, what is it good for?
People Are People
# So why should it be...
You and I should get along so aw-fully? #
I am a very big fan of yer Mode but even I winced at the weediness of this lyric and fully expected to be laughed at.
It's still better than
having a career in Korea.
Iron Maidens `Afraid to
Iron Maidens `Afraid to shoot strangers` are a song about the gulfwar...worth checking out!
Billy's Bones
I'm brand new on here..hi..some truly great songs here..Easter Parade..hadn't heard that for years.
Can't do links or fancy stuff, only got this at christmas..try 'Billy's Bones' by the pogues..
'now Billy's out there in the desert sun
and his mother's crying when the morning comes
and there's mothers crying all over this world
for their poor dead darling boys and girls'
Billy Allen
This is a damn fine song about wasting your life, be it by dying in some stupid conflict or through drug abuse.
A very underrated band from Lincolnshire in UK.
Find them at www.bfch.co.uk
The Band from County Hell
tata...old barney.