Whats everyones favourites and why?

Always seem to interest me they do

Blowing in the wind by Dylan

Ein bisschen Frieden - Nicole.

No Mans Land - Eric Bogle

http://ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/nomansland.pdf

Donovan's 'Universal Soldier' springs to mind. Probably not my favourite but it springs to mind.

Dropkick Murphys do a good version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9TDt3Ouo4

Another By Eric Bogle

AND THE BAND PLAYED
WALTZING MATILDA
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda Cords

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?







Very poignant


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
copyright © Eric Bogle

One of the great Australian songs along with anything by Rolf Harris.

Eric Bogle is actually Scottish

cross and blackwell anyone

More like Cock and Leekie

We need to put a delay on PoK to ensure he actually reads the textbefore he types ...

I'm making an assumption here but I suspect he got the wrong Waltzing Matilda...

Surely, there's only one Waltzing Matilda?

Camouflage by Stan the ridge

That was superb and thought provoking.

When Labour came to power in 1997 The Times ran a feature on various people's favourite songs and this one was Tony Blair's favourite. Unfortunately he got the title and the name of the writer wrong. It should have been a warning to us all

The best one ever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo

In my youth one anti-war song stood out more than most, simply by its vitriol.
Those lovely sinalongaditties Crass, with their homage to Mrs T:
"How Does it Feel To be the Mother of a Thousand Dead?"
I didnt bother looking it up on youtube, just presumed it wouldnt be there...
Oh and Tin Soldier and Wasted Life by SLF
Not saying they're the best, but when I was a teenager they had the most power

Edwin Starr.. War

I've known that song for years and never knew it was called No Mans Land.

Good song innit.

..they don'r seem to work do they.

Unfortunately songwriters and poets don't have a real influence in government circles, no matter how close some of them think they are to the people with the real power.

I can just see the Taliban in a cave and one pipes up..."According to Donovan, the futility of war is...."..." JUST SHUT THE F*** UP ABOUT DONOVAN EH?"
War is politics by other means, the idea that a few warbling middle class beleedin hearts have discovered that war is futile is the biggest joke of all. War was known for what it is for thousands of years, if you've experienced it you don't need some eternal student consience to 'enlighten' you.

I always knew it as 'The Green Fields of France'

Damn right Mr Snow

To those of you who wear the uniform to keep my family and I safe, We thank you.
To the families of those who wear the uniform, We thank you.
To those who wore the uniform and have made the ultimate sacrifice, We thank you most of all.
We WILL remember them.

Hear, hear.

Amen to that, sir.

Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire.

I don't think Dylan and Donovan were middle class exactly, tho I take Snowy's point, partially.
I suppose the point of a protest song is to raise consciousness in people who can exert pressure on politicians not to go to war unnecessarily. There have been instances where mass demos have at least abbreviated wars.

Despite what some on here think, songs can make a difference.

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/ohio.htm

Or to put it another way, why, wherever there's a dictatorship, is there always also a clampdown on poets?

Sorry Mr B, you've still got to shake out that last remaining bit of the hippy generation. Dollars change things not words.

You'll be telling us that you don't believe Mandela was a terrorist next.

Oh aye, I'd far rather face a RPG than a few verses of Milton.

What's that got to do with it? The point is politicians don't like people who think.

"One Man's Terrorist Is Another Man's Freedom Fighter"

The quotation in the headline is:
1) A popular cliche, whose original author or speaker is hard to pin down.

2) An example, for many people, of everything that is wrong with The Left.

3) A gross oversimplification. There are many terrorists who are manifestly not freedom fighters (obvious example: Osama bin Laden). There are also many freedom fighters who are manifestly not terrorists. (obvious examples: Vaclav Havel, Martin Luther King, George Washington.) Ignoring that, and implying that it's all relative, is a great way to make people you think terrorism is okay and obscure a worthwile point.

The point is that there are some groups that one could plausibly argue for filing under either "terrorist" or "freedom fighter"--or to be more neutral about it, which is probably a good idea, "guerilla". Lots of groups, with many different sets of initials, have used violence in the service of a nationalist cause (e.g secession, independence, self-determination, or joining another country where they will be the majority.) Whether their cause is just or not, these groups usually operate illegally, and the government calls them "terrorists" and "traitors" while they claim to be "freedom fighters" or "liberation movements". They tend not to organize a regular army, but to use guerilla tactics. They do not wear uniforms or try to win pitched battles; instead they ambush or blow something up and then disappear again.

So how do we figure out which of these groups are terrorists, and which are guerillas? "The ones the U.S. says are terrorists" or "the Arab/Muslim ones" are not satisfactory answers. "The ones whose cause is just" also doesn't cut it for me.

I haven't suddenly eaten a dictionary, as you may guess that was a copy and paste, but I generally go along with what was being said.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I'd rather Make Love Not War, that's why I joined the RAF and not the army.

Another nomination for an anti war song.

Like Bomber Harris you mean?

Luckily there weren't any wars going on between '71 and '77

You sure about that Mr B?

Not that I got involved in, but a lad I trained with did get posted to Aldergrove, his last advice when he went of on leave before he reported for duty in Belfast, was to grow his hair, he had about 2 weeks to do it in.

The only other 'near miss' was a posting to RAF Masirah in Oman, and a visit to Salalah on the border with Yemen, the SAS were looking after us though.

This one is genuine

motorhead-1916
megadeth - holywars

is masters of war an anti war song?
I like it whatever......


think eric bogles playing in saltburn sometime soon?


edit*
it was last week..........I'd have went an all.........