Civil War (song)

As I was driving to work today, I heard this song on the radio. I hadn't heard it in years, so when I heard it today and really listened to the lyrics it nearly made me cry. I figured with some of the attitudes around here, it might do some people some good.

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
You're power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war

Look at the shoes you're 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 our human rights
and 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
You're 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
You're 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

I don't need one more war
Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway?

If the mods feel it should be somewhere else, so be it. I really feel like the message belongs here though.

just in case you wondering what the clips were , saving pvt Ryan and the lost battalion two of the top 5, best how war really is movies.

An awesome song! The music, riffs,, solo and lyrics are all great!

"Human Grocery Store," makes a lasting impression --hell, the whole song does.

I couldn't get enough of the song when it first came out and even today, it's still in my top 30 favorite songs of all time.

A side note here, another G N R song that didn't get as much attention as it should have...Locomotive. Awesome 8 minute song.

Often times we hear people wanting or expecting open civil war here in the US. In fact, I am of the opinion that we are not far from it in all reality. We have came close it several times since the last Civil War here in the US but it was always called something else. Be it a protest or a riot or even just a demonstration.

People often believe that so long as the the TV is own and food is in people's bellies, then things will be fine. That we are better off than the people of Egypt were. That we are too comfortable to step outside of apathy. They point to the Kent State massacre and say "See, gunning down college students wasn't enough to galvanize the nation to take up arms what could possibly be worse?"

But I am of the mind that it doesn't take a single horrifying event for the People to say enough is enough. That our apathy is actually a catalyst than a hinderance. Because there are those that are very aware of what things are wrong and what inactions from our have done to correct those problems.

While things such as the Patriot Act and HCR are frightening pieces of legislation. They are not enough. Economy in the tank and people hungry and jobless while business executives dine on steak and lobster and cry about not receiving their multi-million dollar bonuses, nope still not enough.

But think of the little laws and actions that strive to stamp out self-reliance. Laws that protect agro-business from the people that sell what they grow in Farmer's Markets and roadside stands. Even in the Great Depression there were many pictures of farm children selling apples and glasses of lemonade in the cities for a nickel.

When people find that they can no longer choose how to provide for their own self-determination is when there will be problems. When governments (federal, state and local) are found to have tricked the people is when there will be a problem.

Will there ever be a Civil War? Yes, it could come at any day, at any hour, that enough people decide to organize and cannot be bribed nor dissuaded. The total US population is roughly 330 million. 1% is 3.3 million, roughly equal to all active US military. 5% is 16.5 million, roughly equal to the total number of active military forces in the world. 10% is 33 million, it really just becomes a numbers game at this point doesn't it (and for the record, the population of Australia is roughly 22.5 million)?

Hopefully the ones that just want to go out and scream Civil War for no reason will look at this song and video with a different viewpoint for a second and think "Is my desire truly worth the cost in life and limb that this will cost?"

Great song, hope you don't mind me posting this, but heres another good song along similar lines (I think), I know it mentions the Falklands, but it can apply to the middle east too:



Gunshots shatter in the peace of night
Just another fire fight
For the people of this little town
But for the dying soldier
Well he's feeling ten years older
As he's lying face down on the ground
All the words that are in his head
And all the words his mother said
As she would put him to bed back home

Your daddy well he died in the Falklands
Fighting for another man's cause
And your brother he was killed in the Last War
And your mother well she's lying home alone

Every day she sees your face
On the picture on the fireplace
With your brother as he was leaving school
Then a day came five years ago
You said, "Mother, I need to know"
And you spoke the words your brother spoke before
"I seen the things my Daddy's done
And I've seen the medals Daddy's won
And I know that this is what he would have wanted for me."

But, your daddy well he died in the Falklands
Fighting for another man's cause
And your brother he was killed in the Last War
And your mother well she's lying home alone

Now she wonders at it all
Just in whose name do these brave young heroes fall
And how many more are going to answer that call
They're going to fight and die in another country's war
They're going die for a religion they don't believe in at all
They're die in a place they should never've been at all
Oh, never've been at all

'Cause, your daddy well he died in the Falklands
Fighting for another man's cause
And your brother he was killed in the Last War
And your mother well she's lying home alone

And your daddy well he died in the Falklands
Fighting for another man's cause
And your brother he was killed in the Last War
And your mother well she's lying home alone

Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "La, la, la"

Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see, there go the Robert E.Lee"
Now I don't mind choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down
[ From : www.elyrics.net... ]
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "La, la, la"

Like my father before me, I will work the land
And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na"

The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, na"

reply to post by OneNationUnder


I saw GNR in 92 and 93 and they were awsome and at the time of the illusion tours (for the UK ATS'ers Wembley Stadium and Milton Keynes Bowl), I was 16 and then 17 at the time. It was about the music, the discovery of ones own expression and the angst (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc also involved there too) sound, the guitars and the compositions and now that I am older I understand the lyrics more and are saddened by their truth and accuracy.

War sucks. That's for damn sure. Here's one about a more recent war...



When you're used up, where do you go
Soldier
Mother dry your eyes, there's no need to cry
I'm not a boy, it's what I signed up for

When you're used up, where do you go
Soldier
I can't take the heat, and I hardly sleep anymore
What'd we come here for

Standing out here in the desert
Trying to protect an oil line
I'd really like to do my job but
This ain't the country that I had in mind
They call this a war on terror
I see a lot of civilians dying
Mothers, sons, fathers and daughters
Not to mention some friends of mine
Some friends of mine

Was supposed to leave last week
Promises they don't keep anymore
Got to fight the rich man's war

When you're used up, where do you go
Soldier
Late in 2004
Comes a knock at the door
It's no surprise
Mother dry your eyes

Mother don't you cry, no, no
Someone told you a lie
Yes they did, why
Mother don't you cry, oh no
Mother don't you cry