This was another song that I first heard on that great anti-war Donovan EP. It took me quite a while to track down the original Mick Softley version but well worth it. He’s a bit of an unsung hero.
Back in the 1960s there was a ferment of social commentary and anti-war songs that the Press had a habit of calling Protest Songs. They were my favourites. I like songs with meaning, poetry and purpose.
It was Dylan, with his fantastic songwriting, who sparked the interest and paved the way for others like Mick Softley to follow. Already, at this early stage in the Vietnam war, one can see clearly from Mick’s lyrics that it was not going well. War is bloody and always catches the innocent. It is bloody and cruel and makes enemies out of friends. The very people that the US was ostensibly their to save were becoming the main victims. It was a breeding ground for hatred.
Mick ends the song with a vision of a nuclear holocaust. I hope people in the Trump administration and North Korea have copies of the song and play it before they go to bed.
The War Drags on – Mick Softley
Let me tell you the story of a soldier named Dan.
Went out to fight the good fight in South Vietnam,
Went out to fight for peace, liberty and all,
Went out to fight for equality, hope, let’s go,
And the war drags on.
Found himself involved in a sea of blood and bones,
Millions without faces, without hope and without homes.
And the guns they grew louder as they made dust out of bones
That the flesh had long since left just as the people left their homes,
And the war drags on.
They’re just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they’re doing it, it don’t seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country’s known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
Last night poor Dan had a nightmare it seems.
One kept occurring and re-occurring in his dream:
Cities full of people burn and scream and shoutin’ loud
And right over head a great orange mushroom cloud.
And there’s no more war,
for there’s no more world,
And the tears come streaming down.
Yes, I lie crying on the ground.
