Randy was such a clever song-writer. There was always that edge of political perception put over with such a dollop of irony, satire and bite. I’m not really sure what the bulk of the American public made of it. They’re not used to that type of humour. It’s very European.
There were so many great songs which I love. This one seems particularly poignant. It captures that American response to every crisis and put down – Fuck ’em we’ll blow the bastards to kingdom come – that’ll teach them.
Unfortunately it won’t.
I actually heard one guy seriously saying (about the Vietnamese during the war when there was the difficult of distinguishing the Viet Cong from innocent civilians) that the best thing was to blast every last one of them and let God sort them out. I think he meant it too.
I’m sure there’s a lot of Americans who think that the answer to the IS problem is to nuke Mecca. The trouble is that I wouldn’t put it past them either.
This is one of his best. There’s a subtleness to it!
“Political Science”
No one likes us-I don’t know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let’s drop the big one and see what happens
We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they’re spiteful and they’re hateful
They don’t respect us-so let’s surprise them
We’ll drop the big one and pulverize them
Asia’s crowded and Europe’s too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada’s too cold
And South America stole our name
Let’s drop the big one
There’ll be no one left to blame us
We’ll save Australia
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin’, too
Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We’ll set everybody free
You’ll wear a Japanese kimono
And there’ll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
So let’s drop the big one now
Let’s drop the big one now