Dad’s gonna kill me – Richard Thompson lyrics about the war in Iraq.

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richard-thompson-live Richard Thompson Richard Thompson 6

The Dad in question is Baghdad. War is a stupid way to conduct ourselves. It’s time we started thinking with our cerebrum instead of our glands.

There are no winners. War is violence deployed with hardware. It breeds hatred.

Peace is hope deployed with smiles and a helping hand .

I know which I prefer.

I suggest we heal the wounds rather than make more.

Help build a positive zeitgeist.

Religious extremism coupled with callous barbarity cannot be justified. Revenge is primitive; forgiveness is civilised.

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me (Richard Thompson)

Out in the desert there’s a soldier lying dead
Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head
Another day that could have been me there instead
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

You hit the booby trap and you’re in pieces
With every bullet your risk increases
Old Ali Baba, he’s a different species
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’m dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’ve got a wife, a kid, another on the way
I might get home if I can live through today
Before I came out here I never used to pray
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dawn Patrol went out and didn’t come back
Hug the wire and pray like I told you, Mac
Or they’ll be shovelling bits of you into a sack

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.

And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams
And whose that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart
And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

7 muzzle monkeys standing in a row
Standing waiting for The Sandbox to blow
Sitting targets in the wild west show

Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody’s dying if you speak double-speak

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Bob Dylan – Only a Pawn in Their Game – Lyrics about the cowardly murder of the civil rights leader Medgar Evans.

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ku_klux_klan_by_mikimikibo-d37022gMedgar Evans

Medgar Evans was shot in the back by a cowardly gunman who hid in the bushes. He was killed in front of his wife and children.

The aim of the murder was to strike terror into the community so that they would not rise up and seek their rights.

The aim of Islamic extremists is to impose their distorted view of religion on other people. They want to stifle free speech and the rights of the individual. They use hate, extreme violence and terror to get their way.

Like the Klu Klux Klan they will be defeated.

As Dylan pointed out the terrorists who are blowing themselves up or attacking innocent people have been duped. The people organising the killings are well away out of danger.

The perpetrators are pawns in the game.

The only way to deal with fascism is through education.

“Only A Pawn In Their Game”

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game.

A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than blacks, don’t complain
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin” they explain
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
‘Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.

From the powerty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoof beats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ‘neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.

Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.

 

Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around To Die – Lyrics that paint a picture – what is the purpose of life? We’re all just filling in stuff.

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Townes is a very under-rated singer-songwriter. He rambled round and scratched a living playing the dives, drinking, gambling and getting lucky every now and then. He wrote some beautiful songs, some difficult songs and some songs that ask questions.

This is one of the questioning type.

What are we doing with all these precious seconds?

Waiting Around To Die

Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I can’t even see the reason why
I guess I keep on gamblin’, lots of booze and lots of ramblin’
It’s easier than just a-waitin’ ’round to die

One-time friends I had a ma, I even had a pa
He beat her with a belt once cause she cried
She told him to take care of me, she headed down to Tennessee
It’s easier than just a-waitin’ ’round to die

I came of age and found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit it on the sly
I tried to kill the pain, I bought some wine and hopped a train
Seemed easier than just a-waitin’ ’round to die

A friend said he knew where some easy money was
We robbed a man and brother did we fly
The posse caught up with me, drug me back to Muskogee
It’s two long years, just a-waitin’ ’round to die

Now I’m out of prison, I got me a friend at last
He don’t steal or cheat or drink or lie
His name’s codeine, he’s the nicest thing I’ve seen
Together we’re gonna wait around and die

Bert Jansch – Do you Hear me Now? – Angry lyrics against war and the bomb.

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Back in the Cold War days of the sixties we were living with the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. It is hard to imagine now. We lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis when we did not know if we would get home or become dust.

Freedom fighters back then were not religious fanatics; they were people who stood up for freedom, the end to war and violence and a better way of living. They wanted PEACE!! We wanted disarmament.

We were tired of living under the constant threat of death.

Do you Hear me Now?

Freedom fighters speak with your tongues
Sing with the might of the wind
In your lungs, do you hear me now?
My mama told me, papa said it too
Son, the world’s divided and you know
Your cause is true, do you hear me now?
Can you see those mushrooms seed and burst
Spreading through our valleys breeding hunger
Breeding thirst. Do you hear me now?

Snowing in the winter, blossoms in the spring
If they drop the bomb in the summertime
It don’t mean a dog-gone thing
Do you hear me now?
Do you hear me now?

Freedom fighters speak with your tongues
Sing with the might of the wind
In your lungs, do you hear me now?
Do you hear me now?

Buffy St Marie – My Country ‘Tis of thy People You’re Dyin’ – Passionate song about the genocide of the Native American Indian.

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Buffy St Marie was a full-blooded Native American Indian. Her passion shows in this articulate elegy concerning the plight of the Indians and the lies and genocide that was inflicted upon them.

An incredible piece of writing!

“My Country ‘Tis Of Thy People You’re Dying” was written by Sainte-marie, Buffy.

Now that your big eyes have finally opened
Now that you’re wondering how must they feel
Meaning them that you’ve chased across
America’s movie screens

Now that you’re wondering how can it be real
That the ones you’ve called colorful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda, they starve in their splendor
You’ve asked for my comment, I simply will render

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Now that the long houses breed superstition
You force us to send our toddlers away
To your schools where they’re taught
To despise their traditions

You forbid them their languages, then further say
That American history really began
When Columbus set sail out of Europe
Then stress that the nation of leeches that conquered this land
Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best

And yet where in your history books is the tale
Of the genocide basic to this country’s birth
Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed

How a nation of patriots returned to their earth
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
As it rang with a thud o’er Kinzua mud
And of brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Hear how the bargain was made for the West
With her shivering children in zero degrees
Blankets for your land, so the treaties attest
Oh well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed

And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
From smallpox-diseased dying soldiers that day
And the tribes were wiped out and the history books censored
A hundred years of your statesmen have felt
It’s better this way

And yet a few of the conquered have somehow survived
Their blood runs the redder though genes have paled
From the Gran Canyon’s caverns to craven sad hills
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale

From Los Angeles County to upstate New York
The white nation fattens while others grow lean
Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens
Our life blood shut up in your chemical tanks
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hands
And surprise in your eyes that we’re lacking in thanks

For the blessings of civilization you’ve brought us
The lessons you’ve taught us, the ruin you’ve wrought us
Oh see what our trust in America’s brought us

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity
Now that we’re harmless and safe behind laws
Now that my life’s to be known as your ‘Heritage’
Now that even the graves have been robbed

Now that our own chosen way is a novelty
Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory
Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy
Pitying the blindness that you’ve never seen

That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory
They were never no more than carrion crows
Pushed the wrens from their nest
Stole their eggs, changed their story

The mockingbird sings it, it’s all that he knows
“Ah, what can I do?”, say a powerless few
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye
Can’t you see that their poverty’s profiting you?

My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying

Woody Guthrie – Vigilante Man lyrics – Protest song – A vigilante man is a vicious thug hired by the bosses to break strikes so that they can pay starvation wages and make bigger profits.

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Most people are pleasant, helpful, caring and kind. A few are selfish and greedy. And some are spiteful vicious and mean.

There’s none worse that the black-leg, the scab, the vigilante thug.

Woody took his stance and sang his songs with the working men on the picket lines. He took his beatings too. He stood for justice and fairness.

It’s the same battle now.

Vigilante Man

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I been hearin’ his name all over the land.

Well, what is a vigilante man?
Tell me, what is a vigilante man?
Has he got a gun and a club in his hand?
Is that is a vigilante man?

Rainy night down in the engine house,
Sleepin’ just as still as a mouse,
Man come along an’ he chased us out in the rain.
Was that a vigilante man?

Stormy days we passed the time away,
Sleepin’ in some good warm place.
Man come along an’ we give him a little race.
Was that a vigilante man?

Preacher Casey was just a workin’ man,
And he said, “Unite all you working men.”
Killed him in the river some strange man.
Was that a vigilante man?

Oh, why does a vigilante man,
Why does a vigilante man
Carry that sawed-off shot-gun in his hand?
Would he shoot his brother and sister down?

I rambled ’round from town to town,
I rambled ’round from town to town,
And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle.
Was that the vigilante men?

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I’ve heard his name all over this land.

Beatles – Revolution – Meaningful Lyrics about the need for social change.

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beatles2 beatles_of_the_devil

The sixties was a period of great social change. The gloom of the post-war drab 1950s was replaced with a new optimism, liberalisation and need for fun and colour. Bob Dylan had pointed the way with his anti-war and civil rights poetry and youth had erupted all over the planet to create a vibrant music, fashion and rebellious counter-culture. For a while the establishment reeled.

The need for social change was openly discussed. There were protests, sit-ins, marches and protest. There was revolution in the air. For a while, with the Paris student street protests and the Chicago riots, it looked as if there could be violent revolution.

The Beatles had aligned themselves with the youth rebellion and were subjected to the same pressure as the rest of sixties youth. Their response was to disown the more radical and violent element and support those who wanted to bring about a peaceful change. If we altered our heads and our mind-set we could bring about a positive move to a better, more liberal society.

It was worth struggling for.

“Revolution”
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out

Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re all doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait

Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright, al…

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You’d better free your mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow

Don’t you know know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright

Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright

Bob Dylan – Chimes of Freedom – meaningful lyrics.

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BOB DYLAN at Mayfair Hotel London 3 May 1966
This song particularly resonated to me. It was written from the viewpoint of looking out over a town during an amazingly powerful storm as the church bells rang and intermingled with the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning. It was so majestic that it looked as if the heavens were putting on a show for all the people who witnessed it.
All the rich and wealthy were probably indoors watching telly oblivious to the incredible spectacle outside.
But the less fortunate were outside watching. Dylan imagined this amazing spectacle being put on for the benefit of all the outcasts and down ‘n’ outs. Most of whom were blameless, had their reasons or were wrongly accused. They were being blessed by a mystical display.

The poetry was incredible. The sentiments hit home. The empathy was there. Dylan and I were part of those outcasts.

“Chimes Of Freedom”

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An’ the poet an the painter far behind his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a clouds’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmfull, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Captain Beefheart – Smithsonian Institute Blues – Lyrics with meaning

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Captain Beefheart is my favourite. His music was so incredible and his poetry so unique. Nobody does it like the Captain. His band truly are magic.

This particular song encapsulates my own view on ecology and the environment. We’re evolved from what went before and we’re merely passing through. Soon we will just be another layer in the sediment, another set of bones to pull out of the tar-pit and wonder at.
The sad part is that we seem to be so determined to speed up our own exit and taking everything else down with us. You wouldn’t think we were intelligent at all, would you?
I went to the tar-pit at La Brea in Los Angeles where they’d pulled out all those fossil dinosaur bones who’d got trapped in the tar.
I think we’re trapped in the tar of our own greed and selfishness
I sure hope we get to put our feet free before we’re sucked down! I’d like my grandchildren to see a wild gorilla and a tree.

Smithsonian Institute Blues (The Big Dig)

Come on down t’ the big dig
Come on down t’ the big dig
Come on t’ the big dig
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
The way it’s goin’ La Brea tar pits
I know you just can’t lose
The new dinosaur is walkin’ in the old one’s shoes
Come on down t’ the big dig
Can’t get around the big dig
This may be premature but if I’m wrong
You can just say it’s the first time I was happy t’ be confused
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues
Alll you new dinosaurs
Now it’s up t’ you t’ choose
It sure looks funny for a new dinosaur
T’ be in an old dinosaur’s shoes
Dina Shore’s shoes
Dinosaur shoes
C’mon down to the big dig
You can’t get around the big dig
C’mon to the big dig
Ya can’t get around the big dig
Singin’ the Smithsonian Institute blues

Bob Marley – War – The importance of great lyrics and social justice.

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I always love great lyrics. For me in order to be brilliant a song requires some poetic words with meaning to get your teeth into.

War by Bob Marley is a favourite of mine. It was based on the address of King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to the United Nations and sums up my feelings.

Until we as a race reach the point where we address the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ we will have war and conflict. If you have nothing you have nothing to lose.

The disaffected in our country and throughout the world will cause trouble when they see the lifestyle of others who have so much from contributing so little.

For me the issues of social justice, the protection of the environment and population control are paramount. The religious fanaticism and social unrest are a product of these. They have to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Bob summed it up:

“War”

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned –
Everywhere is war –
Me say war.

That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes –
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race –
Dis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained –
Now everywhere is war – war.

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola,
In Mozambique,
South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled,
Utterly destroyed –
Well, everywhere is war –
Me say war.

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south –
War – war –
Rumours of war.
And until that day,
The African continent
Will not know peace,
We Africans will fight – we find it necessary –
And we know we shall win
As we are confident
In the victory

Of good over evil –
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil –
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil –
Good over evil, yeah! [fadeout]