The whole album really, but the added track, When the Tigers Broke Free, is particularly heartfelt and poignant.
I’ve gone for the version by Tricky rather than Public Enemy
The Band played Waltzing Matilda written by Eric Bogle and sung by June Tabor
Also No mans land/Flowers of the Forest by June Tabor
Country Joe and the Fish - Vietnam Song.
Black Sabbath - Warpigs.
I’ll second Bob Dylan’s Masters of War.
John Lennon - HappyXmas /War Is Over
Woody Guthrie’s ‘Ballads Of Sacco and Vanzetti’ is a remarkable set of songs protesting at a miscarriage of justice which led to two immigrant Italian workers being executed in the US in the 1920s (or thereabouts).
And it seems my time has passed before me until now
In sequences of moments.
And now I see this poster: They seem to need me anyway
I’ll take the shilling sign
I’ll make a positive move to be an action man
The woman seem to want us to go.
And so I can’t refuse
So I find myself in a country somewhere
Where mayhem’s madman minions all march around a square.*
Unquestioning obedience Is the order of the day
Your friends are coloured khaki and your enemies are grey
THE SERGEANT-MAJOR’S PEP-TALK
"Alright my likely lads, you’ve left your mums and dads, now
Our glorious leaders start a war to protect the 'ole of 'umankind
That’s why they always stay be’ind
What d’ya mean ‘Isn’t it wrong to kill?’ Not if the top men say so!
Where you’re going sonny General’s top chap
Next to him you’re a small piece of crap
If none of us went out of fight We’d never prove our side was right
Now would we?
ATTENTION!"
THE COLONEL’S PEP-TALK
"The front line is a pretty bloody place to be, that’s why you go instead of me
Now I’d hate to send you all off thinking that if you get yours you’re going to fret
About your families, so don’t. They’ll get some lovely souvenirs:
A nice bronze plaque on which will be your name
You’ll get free crutches if you end up lame
'Though the numbers of dead will contain many zeros
The survivors will return to a land fit for heroes
Now would I lie to you?
PRESENT ARMS!
Put next to a young boy in a knee-deep trench
Whose hand even trembles when he keeps it clenched
We attack tomorrow in dawn’s early light
And as this sinks in I’m so scared
I can’t wait for it and tonight to be over*
ALRIGHT MEN: OVER THE TOP WE GO!
I can’t make it, I just can’t take it
I trip, strumbling, caught in the barbed wire
Amongst the heat and smoke of the crossfire
It’s madness, madness
On a station platform full of stretchered flesh and bone
Legacy of how easy it is to destroy whatever’s grown
Well maybe there’s a reason That is worthy of a name
Just sick illusions that I suppose will happen again
Well, next time they ask for men at least I’m beyond recall
I didn’t gain my self-respect, I didn’t gain anything at all
If hate and war could solve anything, don’t you think they’d have solved it
A long time ago?
There’s good and evil in all of us
It’s up to you alone which you follow
I know which is my cause from now on:
The only one worth sacrifice, the only one I would have remain when I’m gone -
The flags we weave only deceive
We must believe
We must believe … IN LOVE
Twelfth Night -Sequences
Superbly, imho, produced and recorded, as well, Pete. Very “hifi” without being “audiophile recording hifi”.
The entire “If you don’t fight you lose” album is the way it should be done: powerful, yet delicate.
The shockingly overlooked Tom Paxton’s “The Willing Conscript””
A second vote for Country Joe.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fightin’ for.
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
Phil Ochs “I ain’t marching anymore”. From the soldier’s perspective. Powerful stuff and a Vietnam rallying cry.
Oh, I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British wars
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain’t marching anymore
For I’ve killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying, I saw many more dying
But I ain’t marching anymore
It’s always the old to lead us to the wars
It’s always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes, I even killed my brothers
And so many others
But I ain’t marching anymore
For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh, I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain’t marching anymore
It’s always the old to lead us to the wars
Always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
For I flew the final mission in the Japanese skies
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I was learning
That I ain’t marching anymore
Now the labor leader’s screamin’
When they close the missile plants
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore
Call it peace or call it treason
Call it love or call it reason
But I ain’t marching anymore
No, I ain’t marching anymore
And here he is:
Blind Boy Grunt’s, “John Brown”:
Plus, of course, Give Peace a Chance.
