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I never realized just how powerful this song was until it nearly brought me to tears today

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Bjorn Against Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 05:34 PM
Original message
I never realized just how powerful this song was until it nearly brought me to tears today
 
Run time: 07:52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaqtG9eRgA
 
Posted on YouTube: August 06, 2007
By YouTube Member:
Views on YouTube: 0
 
Posted on DU: November 25, 2007
By DU Member: Bjorn Against
Views on DU: 1814
 
I grew up listening to this song, but I was young and the message really never sank in. Today I heard it again though, and I fully understood what was being said and it hit like a sledgehammer. I never really considered Guns N' Roses to be a political band, but this has one hard hitting message that holds up far too well fifteen years after its release.

Civil War

"What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men." *


Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before


Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before


My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars


D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land


And
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war


Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more


My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars


"We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer" **


I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
I don't need one more war
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CaliforniaPeggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 05:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. Horrifying. Beautiful. Powerful...
Thank you...

K&R

:cry:
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MadMaddie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 06:27 PM
Response to Original message
2. Let us never forget during our lifetimes and let us never let them
forget whose war "Iraq" is and was!! The children and all involved have paid the ultimate price for this war of choice....I hope the souls of all lost haunt them for the rest of their lives.....30 years after Khmer Rouge they are still bringing the criminals to justice...so be it for this administration and all of their accomplices....

K & R the song is powerful....
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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 08:23 PM
Response to Original message
3. The line that stood out for me:
"everybody's fightin' For their promised land"

"Their promised land" What promised land do you suppose they mean?
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Bjorn Against Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 09:13 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. The final line hit me hard...
Edited on Sun Nov-25-07 09:17 PM by MN Against Bush
It is not shown in the lyrics I copied and pasted from another site but when you listen to the song the very last line you hear is "What's so civil about war anyway?" Great question to end the song with.

On edit: The line you post is very interesting too, especially considering this song was written when there weren't any wars happening at the time. The first Gulf war had not begun yet, and the song was likely written more as a tribute to those who protested than as a protest against any particular conflict. Yet now that there is a war raging in the Middle East that line you mention holds a lot of power.
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truedelphi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 11:48 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Watch the movie in my sig line
The Great World War has been going on since before Vietnam.

It's only if we have our dog in the fight that we even know about most of the wars.

People in the streets and the country villages to rid themselves of their illegal occupations. Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Chiapas region of Mexico.

And a country that I cannot name or topic will get locked down.
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MnFats Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 08:24 PM
Response to Original message
4. also on you tube....:Bruce Springsteen's "Mrs. McGrath"...heartbreaking...
....very emotional expect to choke up...
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xxqqqzme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 05:18 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. I use a verse as my sig line in my emails.
"...All foreign wars I do proclaim,
Live on blood and a mother's pain.
I'd rather have my son as he used to be,
than the King of America and his whole Navy!..."
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MnFats Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 06:09 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. yes, with Bush on screen as Springsteen sings that verse...n/t
the king of america...his whole navy...
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ideagarden Donating Member (94 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-25-07 11:40 PM
Response to Original message
6. great clip
Thanks for that. That wa the first album I ever bought. It was on tape and I still could sing along with the words. I must have listened to it a lot in 5th grade (Iraq #1).
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 12:05 AM
Response to Original message
8. Mary Chapin Carpenter's "On With The Song"....powerful stuff
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Bjorn Against Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 12:15 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. That is a great song too...
I am a big fan of protest music from all genres. Mary Chapin Carpenter has without a doubt some of the best lyrics in the country music genre, and she has a great voice too. I normally don't listen to much country, but I do make an exception for her as that song is one of the only country songs I have actually paid money to listen to when I downloaded it off ITunes.
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Flabbergasted Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 12:16 PM
Response to Original message
10. James Blunt: No Bravery (Bush edition)
Edited on Mon Nov-26-07 12:19 PM by Flabbergasted
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3497765062938431488&q=James+Blunt+war+Bush&total=24&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

I will always remember that G&R song. I'm not a huge fan but I did end up with the cassette from the album this was on from my sisters record collection. I remeber listening to that song many many times years ago but not since.
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LibertyorDeath Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
11. One of their best



"My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars"

Thanx...

Rec!

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DuaneBidoux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-26-07 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
14. Thanks for posting the lyrics with the video too. Nothing really to add.
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