OT: War Songs

[ulthar]

I've been thinking of compiling a list of "war songs" and was wondering what ya'll might include on this list.  These can be war protests, descriptions of war images, etc.

Here's my list.  Note some of these are included because they appear on the soundtracks of war movies:

War Pigs (Black Sabboth)
Two Minutes to Midnight (Iron Maiden)
When I'm Gone  (3 Doors Down)
In Country Collection (various artists, from the show/concert "In Country" on PBS)
We Gotta Get Out of This Place (The Animals)
It's the End of the World As We Know It (REM)
Mother (Pink Floyd)
Two Suns in the Sunset (Pink Floyd)
New Year's Day (U2)
Alice's Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie)
Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)
Travelin' Soldier (Dixie Chicks)  (yes, I actually like this song)

I'm sure there are othes on my list, but I am drawing a blank.

[Doc Daneeka]

Tomato Stomp - Gordon Goodwin from "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" soundtrack

[Scottie]

Rooster (Alice in Chains)

[raj]

Eve of Destruction by what's-his-name.
Who'll Stop the Rain by CCR.

[Derf]

If I can go back a bit further (WWII), I can list plenty:

Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters:

"The Vict'ry Polka"
"Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin"
"There's A Fella Waitin' In Poughkeepsie"
"The Freedom Train"

These are a few. Are you looking more for anti-war songs, or just war songs?

[ulthar]

Derf Wrote:
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>
> These are a few. Are you looking more for anti-war
> songs, or just war songs?

War themed songs in general.

[Neville]

R.E.M. and Bob Dylan have their share of anti-war songs. Right now I can remember these:

Bob Dylan: John Brown, With God on our side

R:E.M: Orange crush, World leader pretend

The problem with R.E.M. is that lyricist Michael Stipe used to be quite cryptic in his lyrics, so you never can tell what exactly did he wanted to say. However the group's political views are quite known.

[LilCerberus]

Big Country's debut album seems to be pretty themed in war songs.
A couple others would be 1916 by Motorhead, & The "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die" Rag by Country Joe MacDonald.
And Glenn Miller enlisted in WWII & wrote a few patriotic songs.

[Yaddo 42]

Barry McGuire sang "Eve of Destruction"

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield. They also had a song "Four Days Gone" about a draft dodger or guy gone AWOL to escape fighting, I'm not quite sure which without looking up the exact lyrics.

Masters of War - Bob Dylan blasting the men behind the desks.
Zor and Zam - The Monkees
Tarkus - Emerson, Lake ,and Palmer
Political Science - Randy Newman. A song which strangely seems more appropriate now.
21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson
Lizard (kind of a prog rock suite) - King Crimson
Sam Stone - John Prine. War's aftermath on a drug addict veteran.
Saigon - John Prine
Yes Sir, No Sir. - The Kinks
The Ballad of Ira Hayes - Johnny Cash. But I like the Kinky Friedman version better, even sadder.
I Don't Wanna Get Drafted - Frank Zappa
Jungle Work - Warren Zevon
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner - Warren Zevon
Welcome Back Home - The Byrds
The whole "Amused to Death" album by Roger Waters
Isn't there a Blue Oyster Cult song about the ME 262 fighter jet?

There are probably tons of popular propaganda songs from WWI and WWII that would work.
Would old Irish marching songs like "O'Sullivan's March" count? It also turns up in movies like "Master and Command" and I think "Rob Roy" (even though that movie is about Scotland).

[ulthar]

Yaddo 42 Wrote:
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> Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner - Warren Zevon

Oh man, I was even thinking about this one while typing my initial list and somehow missed getting it on there.

So, Zevon is on both the war and the Halloween lists...

> Would old Irish marching songs like "O'Sullivan's
> March" count?

Absolutely.  And even have some Irish "fight" songs (isn't that redundant?) on cassettes.  My mind got fixed mostly in rock.

[Neville]

Yep, "O'Sullivan's march" was on both "Rob Roy" and "Master & Commander", I can remember that.

Nobody's brought up CCR's "Fortunate Son" yet? Heard is about somebody being drafted against his will.

[Yaddo 42]

A song about an undead Norwegian mercenary getting revenge on the man who removed one end of him, and carrying on fighting afterwards? Sounds like the idea for a horror movie or a weird take on post-colonial geopolitics in Africa, so yeah, same song in the Halloween and war songs threads.

Good call on "Fortunate Son", Neville. John Fogerty has said it was inspired by seeing sons of wealth and status getting exempts and deferments, while minorities and lower class kids were getting drafted. The song was his expression of his anger and disgust.

More suggestions:

Wooden Ships - CSN
Let's Roll - Neil Young (Some say our first response in the War on Terror began on United 93)
Scenery - Neil Young and Pearl Jam
Cortez the Killer - Neil Young
The Envoy - Warren Zevon. But that's more diplomacy than warfare. Plus it's not a great song.

[Derf]

Here's a few more:

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - written by Frank Loesser
"Riding With Private Malone" - David Ball
"I Hope the Russians Love Their Children, Too" - Sting
"He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" - Words by Eric Maschwitz and Music by Michael Carr
"This Is The Army Mr. Jones" - Irving Berlin
"Mister Custer" - Larry Verne
"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" - Gilbert and Sullivan
"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" - The Andrews Sisters
"Rum and Coca-Cola" - The Andrews Sisters

And to go even further back, here's a link to songs from the American Civil War (I know some of these, but most I've never heard).

[peter johnson]

Some of these I'm a tad mystified by:
I mean, "Tarkus"?  -- Tarkus is an instrumental, so who knows what it's about --
A lot of good, evocative songs on here -- Human conflict is always grounds for song and drama --
* * *
Having said that, I'd like to nominate Richard Wagner's entire "Ring" cycle, which is all about killing, killing, conflict, destruction, and more killing -- And the music is really cool too!!
* * *
While I love a lot of the songs herein mentioned, I'd like to nominate Al Stewart's "Roads to Moscow" as perhaps the most overarching and evocative pop song ever written about war per se.  Find it on the "Past, Present and Future" albumn.  It's a song about the German invasion of Russia in 1941, and the aftemath of that war to a Russian soldier.  Purely captivating, especially if you know your history:
"Two burning Tigers on fire in the night
 Flicker their souls to the wind
 The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin . . . "
It's 8 minutes long & worth every minute of time invested.  Some have called it pretentious, etc., but I emphatically disagree.  
peter johnson/denny crane

[Yaddo 42]

I dug out my tape of Tarkus. There are lyrics here and there, and one section is called "Battlefield". I'll give it a closer listen to see if any of the lyrics apply, if not, I can see why it should be excluded.

Other Iron Maiden songs for inclusion: The Trooper, The Mercenary, Aces High, and Tailgunner. I'm sure there are others.