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Suzanne Vega - The Queen and the Soldier
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Cant resist posting this. Pop cheese on TOTP but the message…
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Yes, you’re right, Clive.
Imagine a world without that murderous Chapman git.
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Midnight Oil have produced lots of great protest songs from anti war through to land rights for First Nations people. US Forces seems to have captured them all in one track, brilliant stuff.
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Or if you prefer
As a Bolshie child of Commie parents - I fed on protest and single entendre messages.
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The Fletcher Memorial Home for me. Captures the bitterness towards those drunk with power and their obsession with acquiring and holding on to it…
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One from my era… Billy Joel - Goodnight Saigon
*** Lyrics
We met as soul mates on Parris Island
We left as inmates from an asylum
And we were sharp as sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives
We came in spastic, like tame-less horses
We left in plastic as numbered corpses
And we learned fast to travel light
Our arms were heavy, but our bellies were tight
We had no home front, we had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy, they gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep and shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might
We had no cameras to shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes
And it was dark, so dark at night
And we held on to each other, like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we’d write
And we would all go down together
We said we’d all go down together
Yes, we would all go down together
Remember Charlie, remember Baker
They left their childhood on every acre
And who was wrong? And who was right?
It didn’t matter in the thick of the fight
We held the day in the palm of our hands
They ruled the night, and the night
Seemed to last as long as six weeks
On Parris Island
We held the coastline, they held the highlands
And they were sharp, as sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors, they counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive
And we will all go down together
We said we’d all go down together
Yes, we would all go down together
-------end of lyrics
…Semper Fi
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The whole album Final cut by Pink Floyd would have been my primary listing before Twelfth Night’s Sequences, but I was beaten to it. These are others that come immediately to mind:
Forgotten sons by Marillion
American boy soldier by the Edgar Broughton band
Mutually assured destruction by Gillan
Soldier of the line by Magnum
Motorhead : 1916 - title track
Lemmy often wrote anti-war lyrics, this was probably the best
16 years old when I went to the war
To fight for a land fit for heroes
God on my side, and a gun in my hand
Chasing my days down to zero
And I marched and I fought and I bled
And I died and I never did get any older
But I knew at the time that a year in the line
Was a long enough life for a soldier
We all volunteered
And we wrote down our names
And we added two years to our ages
Eager for life and ahead of the game
Ready for history’s pages
And we brawled and we fought
And we whored 'til we stood
10,000 shoulder to shoulder
A thirst for the Hun
We were food for the gun
And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers
I heard my friend cry
And he sank to his knees, coughing blood
As he screamed for his mother
And I fell by his side
And that’s how we died
Clinging like kids to each other
And I lay in the mud
And the guts and the blood
And I wept as his body grew colder
And I called for my mother
And she never came
Though it wasn’t my fault
And I wasn’t to blame
The day not half over
And 10,000 slain, and now
There’s nobody remembers our names
And that’s how it is for a soldier
And we can’t forget the late Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman. Certainly a protest song that became an anthem for 1/2 the population.
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I referred above to the murderous git Chapman above.
Programme about him starting on Sky Arts channel now, 900PM.
Metallica - One
The song plus the video is something special IMO. Although it helps to understand the video if you’ve seen the film Johnny Got His Gun.
Boris Vian’s The Deserter, composed at the time of the French-Indochina war, and sung later by Joan Baez among others. Absolutely brilliant.
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one from the current generations wars…
He said son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could
Just carry this gun, you’ll even get paid I said that sounds pretty good
Black leather boots Spit-shined so bright
They cut off my hair but it looked alright
We marched and we sang We all became friends As we learned how to fight
A hero of war Yeah that’s what I’ll be And when I come home They’ll be damn proud of me
I’ll carry this flag To the grave if I must Cause it’s a flag that I love And a flag that I trust
I kicked in the door I yelled my commands The children, they cried But I got my man
We took him away A bag over his face From his family and his friends
They took off his clothes They pissed in his hands I told them to stop But then I joined in
We beat him with guns And batons not just once But again and again
A hero of war Yeah that’s what I’ll be And when I come home They’ll be damn proud of me I’ll carry this flag To the grave if I must Cause it’s a flag that I love And a flag that I trust
She walked through bullets and haze I asked her to stop I begged her to stay But she pressed on So I lifted my gun And I fired away
And the shells jumped through the smoke And into the sand That the blood now had soaked
She collapsed with a flag in her hand A flag white as snow
A hero of war Is that what they see? Just medals and scars So damn proud of me
And I brought home that flag Now it gathers dust But it’s a flag that I love The only flag that I trust
He said, son, have you seen the world? Well what would you say, if I said that you could?
I just hated that song. It was everywhere on the radio when I was growing up. I found it to be ridiculous and corny. Others thought it profound and moving.
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That’s the one I immediately thought of. A great track.
Good thing we’re all different while it’s not my favourite it is for a lot of vets I now. Guess they were speaking for them and to them.
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