War (Protest) Songs

[Gluggy]

Hopefully this thread won't be considered poor taste given current events but its got me thinking about anti war / protest songs and how they they cover a wide range of musical genres whilst ultimately carrying the same message. Some of my favourites are....

Alice's Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM
Still In Saigon (Charlie Daniels Band) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvc0Quq5x8c
The Universal Soldier (Donovan) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9pc4U40sI
99 Red Balloons (Nena) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwgOWo7mDc
Whoopee We're All Gonna Die (Country Joe McDonald) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8

And whilst not strictly a war song "The Beat(en) Generation" by "The The" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustXRPke9lM) gets a mention for being very relevant in today's world.

[Ozone]

War (What is it good for?) - Edwin Starr
The War Song - Culture Club

Oh, and Give Peace a Chance - John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band

Edited by Ozone on Tuesday 1st March 23:23

[franki68]

Creedence..fortunate son .

Dylan ..masters of war

black sabbath ..war pigs

System of a down B.Y.O.B

[zb]

Jimmy Cliff - Vietnam (latterly performed live as "Afghanistan")

[witteringon]

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - written by Eric Bogle

Several versions out there, but The Dubliners nailed it IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfmlB5LiFc

[Super Sonic]

Pink Floyd - The Day the Tigers Broke Free
Kate Bush - Army Dreamers

[GliderRider]

Stand to your glasses steady - as sung in the 1930 Errol Flynn film, Dawn Patrol.
It dates from the Indian North West frontier of the 1830s:

Background here: Stand to your glasses steady - History

Edited by GliderRider on Wednesday 2nd March 20:01

[Gluggy]

Had forgotten about Fortunate Son, always considered it more a song about class differences than war but make sense in that context. Another one from Pink Floyd would be Us and Them.

Will be making time to listen to all the suggestions so far :-)

[paulguitar]

Goodnight Saigon:





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjzjhl-QztE

[GAjon]

Next - Jaques Brel/ Alex Harvey Band

[mickyh7]

Sam Stone.
By John Prine, does that count?

[ChevronB19]

Shipbuilding, Elvis Costello (or Robert Wyatt)?

There’s a good list of anti war songs here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-war_son...

[slopes]

Pretty sure the Cranberries - Zombie is a protest song about the British Army being in Northern Ireland

[Evoluzione]

I don't think they'll be playing Frankies 'Two Tribes' much at the moment.

[Magnum 475]

Dixie Chicks - Travellin’ Soldier.

The song the made George W denounce the band, and made them lose a huge chunk of their US fan base. It references “Vietnam”, but is clearly targeted at Afghanistan & Iraq wars.

[worsy]

slopes said:

Pretty sure the Cranberries - Zombie is a protest song about the British Army being in Northern Ireland

No it's not.

It was written in response to the IRA Warrington bombings.

There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that's why there's that line in the song, 'A child is slowly taken'. [ ... ] We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension.

—?Dolores O'Riordan in 2017, on writing "Zombie".[15]

A similar protest song - Forgotten Sons - Marillion

[stuartmmcfc]

Last train to Clarksville by The Monkees

[Halmyre]

witteringon said:

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - written by Eric Bogle

Several versions out there, but The Dubliners nailed it IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfmlB5LiFc

Eric Bogle's No Man's Land as well.

[Ozone]

stuartmmcfc said:

Last train to Clarksville by The Monkees

Love this song, but didn't know it's meaning!
Every day's a school day

[daddy cool]

Matthew Sweet: Holy War