deepfishy

(ganked from megpie71)

The meme is this: post an anti-war song in your LJ.

Now, there's a lot of anti-war songs out there, one for every conceivable mood, and some which aren't that great but have stuck around anyway because they're easy to sing. It's hard to play favourites.

My pick is Dick Gaughan's version of Pete Seeger's Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. It pretty much captures the feeling for me of being led into dangerous situations by ill-informed jingoism. Plus, rough Scottish accent that sounds like he's biting off every word through gritted teeth :).

The runners-up:

*For a song which captures the horror of war and its effect on the soldiers, I can't go past Eric Bogle's And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

*When feeling particularly malicious, Bob Dylan's Masters of War.

*That quintessential and very straightforward anti-war song, um... War (What is it good for?). Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.

*And I have a soft spot for the Indigo Girls cover of another Seeger song, Letter to Eve (from whence my icon, which needs redoing). The accuracy of lyrics posted on the intarwebs leaves something to be desired, so my own attempt is behind the cut:

Oh Eve, where is Adam
Now you've been kicked out of the Garden?
I said, oh Eve, where is Adam
Now you've been kicked out of the Garden?
I can walk from shore to shore
Don't you find there's no more
Pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa?

Don't you wish love alone, don't you wish love
Don't you wish love alone, don't you wish love
Don't you wish love alone
Could save the world from disaster?
If only love could end our confusion
Or is it just one more illision?
Pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Well if you want to have great love
You've got to have great anger
Well if you want to have great love
You've got to have great anger
When I see innocent folk shot down
Should I just shake my head and frown?
Oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Well if you want to hit the target square
You'd better not have blind anger
Or else it will just be one more time
The correction creates another crime
Well if you want to hit the target square
You'd better not have blind anger
Or else it will just be one more time
The correction creates another crime

Oh Eve, you tell Adam
Next time he asks you he'll say "Baby it's cold outside;
What's the password to come inside?"
You say oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Oh Eve, go tell Adam
We've got to build a new Garden
Oh Eve, go tell Adam
We've got to build a new Garden
We've to to get working on the building
Of a decent home for all of God's children
Oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Well, if music could only bring peace
I'd only be a musician
Yeah if music could only bring peace
I'd only be a musician
Yeah, if songs could do more than dull this pain
and all melodies break these chains
Well, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa
Oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa
Four thousand languages in this world
But it means the same thing to every boy and girl
Oh, pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa

Pacem in terris, mir, shanti, salaam, hey wa.

So those are the song which are anti-war. But when I saw the meme I couldn't help reading it as anti-"war song". And then I just couldn't help myself:

Tom Lehrer is merciless in his mockery, whether it be nuclear testing, Christmas commercialism, or...protest songs. Intro and lyrics to

The Folk Song Army

"One type of song that has come into increasing prominence in recent months is the folk-song of protest. You have to admire people who sing these songs. It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee-house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on. The nicest thing about a protest song is that it makes you feel so good. I have a song here which I realise should be accompanied on a folk instrument in which category the piano does not alas qualify so imagine if you will that I am playing an 88 string guitar."

We are the Folk Song Army
Every one of us cares
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares

There are innocuous folk songs
Yeah, but we regard 'em with scorn
The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience
Why they don't even care if Jimmy Crack Corn

If you feel dissatisfaction
Strum your frustrations away
Some people may prefer action
But give me a folk song any old day

The tune don't have to be clever
And it don't matter if you put a coupla extra syllables into a line
It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English
And it don't even gotta rhyme--excuse me--rhyne

Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs
Though he may have won all the battles
We had all the good songs

So join in the Folk Song Army
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice
Ready! Aim! Sing!

I'll be over here, in the Special Hell.