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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsIn honor of an 8th grade English assignment, name some protest songs
Recently my daughter read an essay for school titled "From the Power of Non-Violence." One of the projects in the unit concerned music as a non-violent from of protest, and specifically discussed "We shall overcome" and "Where have all the flowers gone" as examples. She was asked to pick a protest song and discuss it and the issue(s) it raises. She asked me for some suggestions and I had trouble thinking up modern songs that she might already be familiar with.
After reading the lyrics and watching a video, she chose Peter Gabriel's "Biko."
Let's list some more. And if you come up with current songs, even better.
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)and joined with Essex's valiant sons to march on London town
with Surrey and with Middlesex
with Suffolk, Norfolk too
and gallant lads from Hertfordshire to see the struggle through ...
Upon the fourteenth day of June the King rode to Mile End
And he spoke softly to us all:
I am the poor man's friend
your wrongs shall all be righted
all bondsmen be made free
O curse the day we trusted him! for he lied wickedly ...
At Smithfield next we met the King
the nobles gathered round
the Lord Mayor struck a killing blow
Wat Tyler struck the ground
our masters bared their teeth and smiled to see our hero slain
You have been slaves since you were born and slaves you'll now remain ...
The men of England long ago rose to demand their rights
though they've been dead six hundred years
remember them tonight
they raised the flag of liberty
they fought the battle well
they died but others will arise to ring the freedom bell ...
Momgonepostal
(2,871 posts)Thank you for posting!
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)This Land Is Your Land
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land
If I Had a Hammer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)now that you're wondering how must they feel?
meaning them that you've chased across America's movie screens ...
hear how the bargain was made for the West
with her shivering children in zero degrees
blankets for your land
so the treaties attest
O 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 ...
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)is one of the best anti-war songs ever written.
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Coventina
(26,874 posts)"I Bombed Korea" Cake
"Dust Bowl Dance" Mumford & Sons
"Enola Gay" OMD
"Killing in the Name" Rage Against the Machine
"The KKK Took My Baby Away" Ramones
Lots more, may add more later.....
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)keep your eyes on the prize! hold on!
got my hand on the freedom plow
wouldn't take nothing for my journey now
keep your eyes on the prize! hold on! ...
Brigid
(17,621 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun?
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the glorious fallen in 1916 ...
DFW
(54,057 posts)The first folk festival I ever played in Germany, I played with Eric Bogle. Great guy. Scottish who had moved to Australia. No one realized the impact this song of his would leave on the world.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Coventina
(26,874 posts)I'm partial to the Elvis Costello version of that one.
"We Care A Lot" Faith No More
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Coventina
(26,874 posts)(What Did I Do To Be So) Black & Blue - Louis Armstrong
DebJ
(7,699 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)I've got a son in the Infantry and he's be mighty glad to see
that someone, somewhere, now and then, thinks about the lives of the mining men
in Perry County ...
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)but now prices almost puts a man to sleep
when we pay our grocery bill
we just feel like making our will
tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? ...
Brigid
(17,621 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)no hunter can shoot them with powder and lead
thoughts are free
I think what I want and what makes me happy ...
my wish and desire no one can deny
it remains this way: thoughts are free ...
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)his feats I do little admire
I will sing thee the triumph of General Ludd
now the hero of Nottinghamshire ...
... his wrath is entirely confined to wide frames
and to those that old prices abate
and those engines of mischief were sentenced to die
by unanimous vote of the Trade ...
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)wherever the eye watches
bog and heath all around
no chirping of birds entertains us
oaks are standing bare and crooked ...
here inside this barren marshland
the camp is built up
where we are far from any joy
stowed away behind barbed wire ...
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)my life goes on in endless song
above earth's lamentation
I hear the real -- though far-off -- hymn
that hails the new creation ...
no storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I'm clinging
since love is lord of heaven and earth
how can I keep from singing? ...
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)hibbing
(10,076 posts)Grrr...forgot how to embed a video.
Peace
Skittles
(152,967 posts)Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right
TexasTowelie
(111,315 posts)Coventina
(26,874 posts)I also like REM's anti-Bush "Final Straw."
mzteris
(16,232 posts)If I had a hammer.
Just about anything from the sixties. Except the ones about free love and pot.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)Country Joe and the Fish
DFW
(54,057 posts)But of course, I was a child of the sixties.. McDonald personally gave me permission to use his tune for a Freedom Toast lyric on their "Sing Along With The Republicans" CD (the Feeling-Like-I'm-fixing-to-Lie Rag), so it's a sentimental favorite as well.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)in north Berkeley!
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)I was 13 years old in 1968; an only child in a very conservative family, where "current events" were often a subject of conversation.
It just seems like so much happened during those years of becoming more aware of the goings on in the world.
I remember the level of violence so prevalent in our politics: JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, the shooting of George Wallace.
I remember the Bay of Pigs, and Duck and Cover (barely, mostly being afraid we were all going to die).
I remember Watts, and anti-war demonstrations in Berkeley (close to home), and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
I remember the first moon landing, and the Weather Underground, the SLA, the Black Panthers, and Angela Davis before she eventually morphed into a professor at Cal.
The 68 Chicago convention (which you posted about) and Kent State, and students taking over Admin buildings at any number of universities.
I had an uncle who went to Vietnam as a 19 year old Marine, survived TET, and came home with a life-long case of PTSD, and a best friend whose older brother never did come back from Vietnam, but lives now only as a memory and a name carved on The Wall in D.C. And I went to West Germany in an Armored Cav unit that patrolled the old NATO/Warsaw Pact border, and then got to see all of that come down with the wall.
I don't know...the more I write, the more I'm reminded of what a time it was to come of age in, and live through. And I haven't even just touched on the half of it. Concerts, girls, different drugs (mostly pot), girls, a 68 Camaro, girls...
I know you know all of this, I suspect you may have lived through even more of it. I guess this thread just really sent me back in a way nothing has for quite some time.
Boring for others to read but I felt a need to type it out. Don't ask me why...
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)I wonder if we have been cursed -- it has indeed been interesting times
kath
(10,565 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)In which case I'll nominate any number of songs by Phil Ochs, and take "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore."
kath
(10,565 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)GReedDiamond
(5,299 posts)John Prine -- Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Benedict Arnold & The Traitors -- We Didn't Put Out the Fire
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Systematic Chaos
(8,601 posts)Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)Systematic Chaos
(8,601 posts)It is a protest song, in the general sense.
struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)Aristus
(66,096 posts)struggle4progress
(118,041 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)original music by Pierre de Geyter and words by Eugene Pottier, it's been translated into most of the languages of the world.
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)Doc_Technical
(3,504 posts)"Fighting for Strangers"- Steeleye Span
"The Patriot's Dream"- Gordon Lightfoot
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)The war is over
So said the speaker with the flight suit on
Maybe to him I'm just a pawn
So he can advance
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Lasher
(27,502 posts)Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief",
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one.
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no,
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)"Deja Vu (All Over Again)"
Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like deja vu all over again
Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship those bodies home while the networks all keep score
Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Could you're eyes belive the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like deja vu all over again
One by one I see the old ghosts rising
Stumblin' 'cross Big Muddy
Where the light gets dim
Day after day another Mamma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end
Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you stop to read the writing at the wall
Did that voice inside you say
I've seen this all before
It's like deja vu all over again
It's like deja vu all over again
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)rurallib
(62,346 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)mulsh
(2,959 posts)Neil Young's "T-Bone" it's tad subtle but very much to the point.
[link:
Coventina
(26,874 posts)"World Destruction" Time Zone
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" U2
"Generals And Majors" XTC
"The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" XTC
"The Call Up" the Clash
"Know Your Rights" the Clash
"Over There" the Connells
"Us or Them" the Cure
"Holiday in Cambodia" Dead Kennedys
"Everything Counts" Depeche Mode
"Electric Avenue" Eddy Grant
"Oliver's Army" Elvis Costello
"Dancing on the Jetty" INXS
"Fur" Jane Wiedlin
"Sam Stone" Laura Cantrell
"Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey
"Welcome to the Occupation" REM
"Exhuming McCarthy" REM
"The Queen is Dead" the Smiths
"Kiss Me, Son of God" They Might Be Giants
"America Is" Violent Femmes
"Living Through Another Cuba" XTC
"You Happy Puppet" 10,000 Maniacs
and of course.....
"Fight the Power" Public Enemy
OK, I'll stop now......
FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)And everything from Bad Religion.
FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)and everything by Jello
FSogol
(45,360 posts)FSogol
(45,360 posts)Let fury have the hour, anger can be power, you know that we can use it
lame54
(35,141 posts)Raine1967
(11,589 posts)People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all
People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek
Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love
It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all
People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek
Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' our wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found
People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek
Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)"The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"
Little_Wing
(417 posts)Yes it's true I am a young man
but I'm old enough to kill
I don't wanna kill nobody
but I must if you so will
And if I raise my hand in question
you just say that I'm a fool
Cause I got the gall to ask you
Can you maybe change the rules
can you stand and call me upstart
Ask what answer can I find, I ain't sayin' I'm a genius
2+2 is on my mind
Well I knew a guy in high school
just an average friendly guy
And he had himself a girlfriend
and you made them say goodbye
Now he's buried in the mud
over foreign jungle land
And his girl just sits and cries
she just doesn't understand
So you say he died for freedom
well if he died to save your lies
Go ahead and call me yellow
2+2 is on my mind
All I know is that I'm young and your rules they are old
If I've got to kill to live
then there's something left untold
I'm no statesman I'm no general
I'm no kid I'll never be
It's the rules not the soldier
that I find the real enemy
I'm no prophet I'm no rebel
I'm just asking you why
I just want a simple answer
why it is I 've got to die
I'm a simple minded guy
2+2 is on my mind
It is a powerful song that affected (and motivated) me deeply when I was a Detroit teenager in the 60s watching my friends ship off to Vietnam.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Who Needs You
You better toss your bullets,
You better hide your guns,
You better help the children,
Let em' have some fun,
You better count your blessings,
Kiss ya mom and pa,
You better burn that flag,
Cause, it ain't against the law
You better pledge allegiance,
You're not the only one,
Listen up forefathers,
I'm not your son,
You better save the country,
You better pass the flask,
You better join the army,
I said, no thank you, dear ol' Uncle Sam
You better toss your bullets,
You better hide your guns,
You better help the children,
Let em' have some fun, some fun, some fun.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)of war. Before it became that it was one of the very early songs about the horrors of war. My understanding anyway.
Here is the Irish Rovers with "Johnny, I hardly knew Ye" - a lament on war:
When goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
When goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
When goin' the road to sweet Athy
A stick in me hand and a drop in me eye
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Johnny I hardly knew ye.
(chorus)
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye
Oh darling dear, Ye look so queer
Johnny I hardly knew ye.
Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild
When my poor heart you first beguiled
Why did ye run from me and the child
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye.
Where are the legs we looked you run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the legs we looked you run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the legs that looked you run
But first you went to carry a gun
Indeed your dancing days are done
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye.
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg
Ye're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg
You'll have to be left with a bowl out to beg
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye.
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home
All from the island of Sulloon
So low in flesh, so high in bone
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye.
snacker
(3,619 posts)Lots of songs here:
http://wnpj.org/44songs.pdf
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Arkana
(24,347 posts)Cause that was DEFINITELY anti-Vietnam.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)protesting religion here in 1990ish:
Your unflappable conceptions
Moralistic views
Never open to criticism
Your overpowering ruse
Promises of sanctuary
In eternal bliss
With starry eyes and cash in hand
Pledge all to the master plan
Just face the truth or fund the farce
At one with your god
Your sole intent
Your treasured place assured
For a substantial rent
Global lunacy
Death threats for supposed blasphemy
No room for free thought
All non believers pushed to the floor
Aggressive tyrants
Supposed saints for the cause
Judgement through force
Faith a fuel for pointless wars
When all is done
Who shall benefit? who is the one?
Not to those who pass on
But those dictators divine waving their deceitful wand
protesting screwing up the eart in 2009:
&noredirect=1
Born between chaos and hatred
A lottery of fate
We sit on the brink of extinction
The world lies in wait
Just a scratch on the surface
Of time that will wash away
We delude ourselves with the notion
That we are here to stay
As life starts to shrink
An impending state of neurosis
Will we awake from
This negligent narcosis?
On the brink
The brink of extinction
We're on the brink
The brink of extinction
Locked together in a mindless campaign
It's only now we see
Appreciation is the one redemption
For all that lives and breathes
Like a virus it's conscious impure
We have farmed disease
It's time now to step back
And find an inner peace
As life starts to shrink
An impending state of neurosis
Will we awake from
This negligent narcosis?
On the brink
The brink of extinction
We're on the brink
The brink of extinction
Brink of extinction
Will we avoid a natural selection?
Do we have the right to survive the failures?
Nature, its force, the scales unbalanced
What's the next step? How do we evolve?
The brink of extinction
On the brink of extinction
Can we avoid a natural selection?
Do we have the right to survive the failures?
Nature, its force, the scales unbalanced
What's the next step? What can we resolve?
On the brink of extinction
As life starts to shrink
An impending state of neurosis
Will we awake from
This negligent narcosis?
On the brink
The brink of extinction
We're on the brink
The brink of extinction
They even cover protest songs!
I figure she can't report on that one but if I was her teacher I'd give her an A for the rest of the year if she did.
chknltl
(10,558 posts)The late 1960s-early '70s saw a lot of anger expressed in this country over our involvement in a war in Viet Nam. This anti-war song by Country Joe McDonald was made famous in this performance at Woodstock. At first I was hesitant to post this piece because of the words spelled out at the start then I thought back to when I was in 8th grade. The war was indeed going on back then and I was living on an Army base as the teen son of a soldier, I was back then thinking quite a bit about that war and so were most of my chums. For this reason I feel this song deserves inclusion on your list of protest songs for your 8th grader.
Here is the song's Wiki link and below is the Woodstock performance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_%22Fish%22_Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die_Rag
Rhiannon12866
(203,041 posts)shenmue
(38,503 posts)By the Clash. Based on 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home.'
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)"Fuzzy Math" - The Bots
Waiting on the World to Change, John Mayer
kwassa
(23,340 posts)Gill Scott-Heron
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
raccoon
(31,092 posts)The first time it was fathers,
The last time it was sons
In between your husbands
Marched away with drums and guns.
But you never thought to question.
You just went on wi' your lives.
Cause all they taught you who to be,
Was mothers, daughters, wives.
You barely just remember
The tears your mother she'd
As she sat and read the papers
Through the lists and lists of dead.
And the gold frame held a photogragh
Your mother kissed each night.
And the door frame held a shocked
And silent stranger from the frae.
And twenty-one years later,
You had children of your own.
The trumpets sounded once again,
And the soldier boys were gone.
But you made their guns and drove their trucks
And you tended to their wounds.
At night you kissed their photograph
And prayed for safe returns.
The first time it was fathers,
The last time it was sons
In between your husbands
Marched away with drums and guns.
But you never thought to question.
You just went on wi' your lives.
Cause all they taught you who to be,
Was mothers, daughters, wives.
And when it was all over
You had to learn again
To be just wives and mothers,
Tho' you'd done the work of men.
But you worked to help the needy
And you never trod on toes.
And the photo on the mantlepiece
Struck a happy family pose.
But your daughters grew to women
And your little boys to men.
And you wished that you were dreaming
When the call up came up again.
But you bravely smiled and held your tears
As you proudly waved goodbye.
But the photo on the mantel piece
It always made you cry.
The first time it was fathers,
The last time it was sons
In between your husbands
Marched away wi' drums and guns.
But you never thought to question.
You just went on wi' your lives.
Cause all they taught you who to be,
Was mothers, daughters, wives.
Now you're getting older
And in time the photos fade.
In widowhood you sit there
And reflect on the parade.
And the passing of your memories
How your daughter change their lives.
Seeing more to their existences
Than mothers, daughters, wives.
The first time it was fathers,
The last time it was sons
In between your husbands
Marched away with drums and guns.
But you never thought to question.
You just went on wi' your lives.
Cause all they taught you who to be,
Was mothers, daughters, wives.
Aye you never thought to question.
You just went on with your lives.
Cause all they taught you who to be,
Was mothers, daughters, wives.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)avebury
(10,946 posts)Cruel War
Where Have All the Flowers Gone
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If I had a Hammer
Mr.Bill
(24,104 posts)This one still gives me goosebumps. Probably because I remember the times so vividly. Listen to the words carefully. It talks about where the blame lies.
lastlib
(22,981 posts)"...But then they passed around the plate at the end of it all,
I didn't have a penny to pay...."