ten best anti war songs of all time
1) Sleep Now In The Fire, by Rage Against The Machine. It's really an anti western society song rather than anti war. We include it here because it's never been bettered. The video, featuring television celebrity Regis Philbin presenting the American version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is the best piece of communist agit prop I've ever seen. The song is all the more powerful for focussing on the real dysfunctions, genuine hypocrasies, and blatent corporate banking criminalities which have infiltrated and currently hide behind our freedoms. I've been told Michael Moore directed the video. The world is in a terrible state when I'm recommending anything Michael Moore did.
2) Empty Walls by Serge Tankian. An anti Iraq war thing. Serge is an immigrant to America who did his level best to make it impossible for America to defend the world against the Muslim terror army which currently seeks to enslave us. The video is a strikingly manipulative example of back stabbing pious defeatism. We encounter a series of set pieces featuring children in a play school with Serge singing among them. Slowly you realise the children are acting out scenes from the Iraq war. The whole montage amounts to a quisling work of art. Serge should go live in a Muslim country and make a few anti Jihad songs, and see how he gets on. But wrong minded, false and crass as the song is, it's also an exceptional work of art. The video too is near perfect agit prop. Not surprising that Serge's known associates include one of the blokes from Rage Against The Machine.
3) Broken Boy Soldier, by the White Stripes. Another one Intended to break the will of the West to fight Jihadis in Iraq. A sublime piece of defeatist treachery released by Jack Black when he wished to run Pass Defence for Saddam Hussein. Still it's poetry.
4) Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel. The classic anti Vietnam war anthem with nifty helicopter sounds crafted into the melody. The best lines are intoned in almost a whisper: "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..." In truth the Viet Cong never ruled the night. The Americans ruled both night and day in Vietnam. But the Viet Cong ruled CBS television. And the American CBS television traitor Walter Cronkite delivered them their victory and delivered Vietnam into a communist slavery from which it has yet to escape, with his treacherous statement: "I am convinced we cannot win this war." Every Soviet, every Chinese Communist and every Viet Cong on earth pricked up their ears at that one and began to realise this war could be stolen on the home front through Quislings like Cronkite. The Jihadis today have been similarly emboldened by Michael Moore, Serge Tankian, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Compost, Newsweek, Time Magazine et al. Particularly Al. I hate him. Billy Joel was typical of many of those musicians who sang about Vietnam in the 1980's. They'd never been there and yet they benefited directly (and financially) from the freedoms upheld by those who had been.
5) War, What Is It Good For, version by Bruce Springsteen. A general 1980's indictment of war. Not clear what Springsteen advocates when Hitlers tanks appear on the horizon. Singing maybe. Springsteen was also responsible for a most poignant anti Vietnam verse in Born In The USA. It would draw tears from a stone. To wit: "I had a brother at Khe Sanh, Fighting off the Viet Cong, They're still there, But he's all gone." Springsteen is another passionate peacenik in the Billy Joel mould. Opposed to Vietnam. Never been within an asses roar of the place.
6) Paul Hardcastle's 19. The multi million selling rap song about Vietnam. Hardcore cornography. This was unbelievably popular in the Summer of 1985 among the brain dead set on both sides of the Atlantic. A techno beat with a chorus line perpetually reiterating the average age of the American soldiers who fought in Vietnam. (Hint: It was over eighteen and less than twenty.) The song spawned a comic parody by impressionist comedian Rory Bremner. This was in the days when Rory Bremner was actually funny, ie before he became a poe faced Channel Four lefty. His parody was about the English cricket team. It began with exactly the same techno beat as Paul Hardcastle's and the words: "They fought they most disastrous series in Test History..."
7) Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. "This is the souund of the air attack siren... The air attack siren sounds like... Ahhh, ahhh ahhh, When two tribes go to war, One is all you can scorrrrre, Score to score, Score to war." More responsible than any other creative work for the ongoing knee jerk anti Americanism of a certain generation of pseuds in Great Britain. The stunningly executed video featured lookalikes of then United States President Ronald Reagan and Communist Russian President Constantin Chernienko in a wrestling match fight to the death surrounded by a baying blood thirsty, audience.
8) Stop The Cavalry (Wish I Was At Home For Christmas) by Jonah Lewie. A classic. Touching, tender, witty and saccharine sweet corny. The song and video are equally independently qualitative. Tends to get played interminably by radio stations over the Christmas period. Released in 1980, the song still captivates as does ye aforementioned video. It is poetry. This Lewie fellow is something of a genius. His other hit song about being always in kitchens at parties is just as distinctive, evocative, poetic and humorous in summing up the comparatively trivial dilemma of those of us who are always in the kitchen at parties. Seriously though. These are the only two Jonah Lewie songs I know and they're both brilliant.
9) Army Dreamers by Kate Bush. Another Brit turning her nose up at the freedoms won by her soldiers. Video not great. Song contains moments of unfathomably poignant melodious lyric splendour.
10) War Baby by Tom Robinson. Oddly brilliant. Is he singing about war or about a love affair? "I can't stand another ten years of this fighting. All this stabbing and wounding. Only getting our own back. And later that same evening, I saw you in the car talking. And I wondered who the hell it was we were trying to fool."
11) Waltzing Mathilda. The version by Irish traditional musicians Makem And Clancy. Tears from a stone, etc etc.
12) Out In The Fields by Phil Lynott and Gary Moore. An all Irish effort. Phil Lynott was drugging and would soon be dead. Gary Moore was a rocker metamorphosing into a bluesman. Between them they came up with a piece of pure hokum which in spite of all the wall to wall cliches is a great song, at times verging on the ballsy magnificent. "It doesn't matter if you're left or to the right. Don't try to hide behind the cause for which you fight. There'll be no prisoners taken till victory is won. No flag, no uniform ever stopped a bullet from a gun. Out in the fields. The fighting has begun. Out in the fields. They are falling one by one. And today. Death is just a heart beat away... There's no communication. No one. To take the blame. The flags of every nation. They're falling... one by one... again."
13) Pipes Of Peace by Paul McCartney. McCartney hamming it up. The video is art too. The melody would break your heart. In a good way.
14) We'll Meet Again, by Vera Lynn. I call it anti war because the song is so unpretentiously timelessly evocative of romantic hope on the eve of destruction. Serj Tankian, Michael Moore et Al (still hate him) take note. You don't have to betray your country, put your President and Prime Minister on trial, and surrender to Muslim Nazis in order to be anti war.
15) Lily Marlene, version by Marlene Dietrich. A song taken to heart by the soldiers of both sides in World War One. Marlene Dietrich's recording is the one people know. It has endured. A rarity among anti war songs. Really beautiful.
2) Empty Walls by Serge Tankian. An anti Iraq war thing. Serge is an immigrant to America who did his level best to make it impossible for America to defend the world against the Muslim terror army which currently seeks to enslave us. The video is a strikingly manipulative example of back stabbing pious defeatism. We encounter a series of set pieces featuring children in a play school with Serge singing among them. Slowly you realise the children are acting out scenes from the Iraq war. The whole montage amounts to a quisling work of art. Serge should go live in a Muslim country and make a few anti Jihad songs, and see how he gets on. But wrong minded, false and crass as the song is, it's also an exceptional work of art. The video too is near perfect agit prop. Not surprising that Serge's known associates include one of the blokes from Rage Against The Machine.
3) Broken Boy Soldier, by the White Stripes. Another one Intended to break the will of the West to fight Jihadis in Iraq. A sublime piece of defeatist treachery released by Jack Black when he wished to run Pass Defence for Saddam Hussein. Still it's poetry.
4) Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel. The classic anti Vietnam war anthem with nifty helicopter sounds crafted into the melody. The best lines are intoned in almost a whisper: "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..." In truth the Viet Cong never ruled the night. The Americans ruled both night and day in Vietnam. But the Viet Cong ruled CBS television. And the American CBS television traitor Walter Cronkite delivered them their victory and delivered Vietnam into a communist slavery from which it has yet to escape, with his treacherous statement: "I am convinced we cannot win this war." Every Soviet, every Chinese Communist and every Viet Cong on earth pricked up their ears at that one and began to realise this war could be stolen on the home front through Quislings like Cronkite. The Jihadis today have been similarly emboldened by Michael Moore, Serge Tankian, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Compost, Newsweek, Time Magazine et al. Particularly Al. I hate him. Billy Joel was typical of many of those musicians who sang about Vietnam in the 1980's. They'd never been there and yet they benefited directly (and financially) from the freedoms upheld by those who had been.
5) War, What Is It Good For, version by Bruce Springsteen. A general 1980's indictment of war. Not clear what Springsteen advocates when Hitlers tanks appear on the horizon. Singing maybe. Springsteen was also responsible for a most poignant anti Vietnam verse in Born In The USA. It would draw tears from a stone. To wit: "I had a brother at Khe Sanh, Fighting off the Viet Cong, They're still there, But he's all gone." Springsteen is another passionate peacenik in the Billy Joel mould. Opposed to Vietnam. Never been within an asses roar of the place.
6) Paul Hardcastle's 19. The multi million selling rap song about Vietnam. Hardcore cornography. This was unbelievably popular in the Summer of 1985 among the brain dead set on both sides of the Atlantic. A techno beat with a chorus line perpetually reiterating the average age of the American soldiers who fought in Vietnam. (Hint: It was over eighteen and less than twenty.) The song spawned a comic parody by impressionist comedian Rory Bremner. This was in the days when Rory Bremner was actually funny, ie before he became a poe faced Channel Four lefty. His parody was about the English cricket team. It began with exactly the same techno beat as Paul Hardcastle's and the words: "They fought they most disastrous series in Test History..."
7) Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. "This is the souund of the air attack siren... The air attack siren sounds like... Ahhh, ahhh ahhh, When two tribes go to war, One is all you can scorrrrre, Score to score, Score to war." More responsible than any other creative work for the ongoing knee jerk anti Americanism of a certain generation of pseuds in Great Britain. The stunningly executed video featured lookalikes of then United States President Ronald Reagan and Communist Russian President Constantin Chernienko in a wrestling match fight to the death surrounded by a baying blood thirsty, audience.
8) Stop The Cavalry (Wish I Was At Home For Christmas) by Jonah Lewie. A classic. Touching, tender, witty and saccharine sweet corny. The song and video are equally independently qualitative. Tends to get played interminably by radio stations over the Christmas period. Released in 1980, the song still captivates as does ye aforementioned video. It is poetry. This Lewie fellow is something of a genius. His other hit song about being always in kitchens at parties is just as distinctive, evocative, poetic and humorous in summing up the comparatively trivial dilemma of those of us who are always in the kitchen at parties. Seriously though. These are the only two Jonah Lewie songs I know and they're both brilliant.
9) Army Dreamers by Kate Bush. Another Brit turning her nose up at the freedoms won by her soldiers. Video not great. Song contains moments of unfathomably poignant melodious lyric splendour.
10) War Baby by Tom Robinson. Oddly brilliant. Is he singing about war or about a love affair? "I can't stand another ten years of this fighting. All this stabbing and wounding. Only getting our own back. And later that same evening, I saw you in the car talking. And I wondered who the hell it was we were trying to fool."
11) Waltzing Mathilda. The version by Irish traditional musicians Makem And Clancy. Tears from a stone, etc etc.
12) Out In The Fields by Phil Lynott and Gary Moore. An all Irish effort. Phil Lynott was drugging and would soon be dead. Gary Moore was a rocker metamorphosing into a bluesman. Between them they came up with a piece of pure hokum which in spite of all the wall to wall cliches is a great song, at times verging on the ballsy magnificent. "It doesn't matter if you're left or to the right. Don't try to hide behind the cause for which you fight. There'll be no prisoners taken till victory is won. No flag, no uniform ever stopped a bullet from a gun. Out in the fields. The fighting has begun. Out in the fields. They are falling one by one. And today. Death is just a heart beat away... There's no communication. No one. To take the blame. The flags of every nation. They're falling... one by one... again."
13) Pipes Of Peace by Paul McCartney. McCartney hamming it up. The video is art too. The melody would break your heart. In a good way.
14) We'll Meet Again, by Vera Lynn. I call it anti war because the song is so unpretentiously timelessly evocative of romantic hope on the eve of destruction. Serj Tankian, Michael Moore et Al (still hate him) take note. You don't have to betray your country, put your President and Prime Minister on trial, and surrender to Muslim Nazis in order to be anti war.
15) Lily Marlene, version by Marlene Dietrich. A song taken to heart by the soldiers of both sides in World War One. Marlene Dietrich's recording is the one people know. It has endured. A rarity among anti war songs. Really beautiful.
posted by heelers | 5:57 AM
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