Anti-war songs

[Cagliostro]

A bit out of date now, but still relevant.

Gonna Put My Face On A Nuclear Bomb - Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper

Alright now, a friend of mine named Jay is going to be landing jets on
aircraft carriers in the navy there, and he's going to have a nuclear bomb between his legs, and he's going to paint my face on that nuclear bomb, and on the side it's going to say, "Mojo says hi."
So I wrote this song about it called Gonna Put My Face On A Nuclear
Bomb, goes like this, wellllll...

Gonna put my face on a nuclear bomb
All them commies better get up and run
When they let that sucker fly, all the bad folks gonna die
Gonna put my face on a nuclear bomb

I don't want to stop living just because the president's fibbing
I don't want to be murderized
Them D.C. folks they must be kooks, put my face on a nuke
Pretty soon we'll all be vaporized

Well down in Moscow they had a powwow
They said that the time was really now
For the bombs to fill the air
Them Russkies must be stupid as us
Everybody's head is full of pus
Now I got to change my underwear

Captain Beyond said soon we might be all dead
But he knows a special place
(???)
Till we put all them bombs in outer space

I don't want no nuclear freeze
No funny looking skin disease
I don't want my face blowed apart
So the next time you see a commie
Might be somebody's mommy
Forget about those bombs and light a fart

Gonna put my face on a nuclear bomb
All them commies better get up and run
When they let that sucker fly, all the bad folks gonna die
Gonna put my face on a nuclear bomb
Gonna put my face on a nuclear bomb
Gonna put my face...

Lord Mr. President, Mr. Russkie President, with the jelly stain on your
head, don't be pushing the button, I don't want to die!

[stonemaybe]

DUCK!!! HUGS!!!

oh yeah...then there's this one...
feel like i'm fixin to die rag - country joe mcdonald

My thread got Lady Fowl the motherducker to post again - happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw Country Joe Mcdonald sing this last year, was good fun!

[lucimay]

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our Brothers in Arms

[Loresraat]

One I consider a well-done anti-war song is "Afro Lover" by James.

[Menolly]

*thanks to Savor Dam for reminding me of my own standard karaoke set; it's been so long since I've been "in voice," I had forgotten...*

The Box
(performed by John Denver on The John Denver Show)
by 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 labeled, “Kindly Do Not Touch - It’s War.”

Decree was issued round about
All with a flourish and a shout
And a gaily colored mascot tripping lightly on before
“Don’t fiddle with this deadly box
Or break the chains or pick the locks
And please don’t ever play about with war.”

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

Mommies didn’t either
Sisters, Aunts, or Grannies neither
Cause’ 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 horror and death
That goes with war.

It bounced right out
And went bashing all about
And bumping into every thing in store.
And what was sad and most unfair
Is that it really didn’t 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 sad and burned and dying
Thousands of them sick and crying
Cause’ when it bumps it’s
really very sore.

Now there’s a way to stop the ball
It isn’t difficult at all
All it takes is wisdom
And I’m absolutely sure
That 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
Cause’ it’s been bouncing round for years and years
In spite of all the wisdom wiz’
Since those wondrous days of yore…

In the time they came upon a box
Bound up with chains and locked with locks
And labeled, “Kindly Do Not Touch - It’s War”

©1971 by Lascelles
Recited by John Denver and released on his
1971 album “Poems, Prayers, and Promises.”

One Tin Soldier
(animated short)
by Lambert-Potter, sung by Coven

Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below.

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone,
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very own.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill,
Asking for the buried treasure,
Tons of gold for which they'd kill.

Came an answer from the kingdom,
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there."

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

Now the valley cried with anger,
"Mount your horses! Draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain-people,
So they won their just reward.

Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

[stonemaybe]

Rory McLeod
Passing The Pain Down
(from 6 mins onward)

They're making us fight for a better living
They're making us fight again and again
It takes fifty years to reach twenty years
with a prisoners ball and chain
And in case we blame our leaders and punch
those who are governing
One brother in Argentina is sent
To punch me and
I'm sent to punch him
And they're

Passing the pain down
Saying be my friend or I'll punch you
they're passing the pain down
They're making our enemies for us
They want us to make war
Against our brothers and sisters
They want us to hate them
They're trying to make us into strangers

I've got a long lost sister in America
Got an auntie in Russia
Got a son in Mexico
in London are our father and our mother
Got cousins in China and Japan
Turkey Ireland Afghanistan
My uncle Bill lives in Birmingham
I want to hold your hand

We want independence
We don't want your American dream
Your dream is a nightmare
with too many screams
Of families waking up
in the middle of the night
Soldiers knocking down doors
They blame us for starting to to fight

Well in their army the general kicks
the major then
the major has a go
He kicks the captain, who then kicks the sargeant
who then kicks the one below
and as the kicks get harder
The poor privates you can see and everyone else
Are kicked to hell
They're trying to save their democracy

I've got a long lost sister in America
Got an auntie in Russia
Got a son in Mexico
in London are our father and our mother
Got cousins in China and Japan
Turkey Ireland Afghanistan
My uncle Bill lives in Birmingham
I want to hold your hand

We want independence
We don't want your American dream
Your dream is a nightmare
with too many screams
Of families waking up
in the middle of the night
Soldiers knocking down doors
They blame us for starting to to fight

[stonemaybe]

Ein Bisschen Frieden

[sgt.null]

10000 Maniacs - My Mother The War (live)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7aAzD4v7uY

[Vader]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysH6-KJSy4M

Though I prefer Johnny Cash's version 1969 at Madison Square Garden.