These upbeat songs have surprisingly dark meanings
A track taken from his 1970 album 'War and Peace,' 'War' became Edwin Starr's signature song and served as a powerful Motown statement against the conflict in Vietnam. It held the no. 1 position on the Billboard Pop Singles chart for three weeks.
Inspired by the Vietnam War, 'War Pigs' speaks about man's desire to kill and destroy, and the fear of conscription. It's performed by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and taken from the album 'Paranoid.'
'Gimme Shelter' was written at the height of the war in Vietnam and besides serving as a protest against the conflict, also covers topics of homicide and assault. It's one of the darkest and most pessimistic tracks ever released by the Rolling Stones.
John Lennon's peace anthem is one of the most celebrated anti-war songs ever conceived. Recorded during a "bed-in" Lennon and Yoko Ono staged in a Montreal hotel in May 1969, the song ended up being chanted by anti-war protesters around the world, then as now.
Lyrically inspired by the Troubles in Northern Island, 'Oliver's Army' was released as a single from the album 'Armed Forces'. The song references boys from the Thames, Mersey, and the Tyne—soldiers from various regions in England now patrolling the streets of Belfast. The title "Oliver" refers to English Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell, who personally led the English forces which subjugated Ireland in 1649.
'Zombie' was the Cranberries' response to the deadly 1993 Warrington bombings in England carried out by the Irish Republican Army that killed two children and injured dozens of others. It's the lead single from their 1994 album 'No Need to Argue.'
'One' portrays a First World War combatant who is severely wounded by a landmine and left blind, deaf, and limbless. Not wishing to live, he taps out in Morse code the request "kill me," a plea eventually understood by the assembled medics. Taken from the 1988 album '...And Justice for All,' this was Metallica's first song to chart in the United States.
A clever play on words where instead of describing an orange flavored drink, 'Orange Crush' instead refers to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange used by US forces during the Vietnam War. It was released in 1988 as a single from R.E.M.'s sixth studio album, 'Green.'
Jim Morrison was apparently inspired to write the lyrics to this song after visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Doors front man was already voicing concern at how the Vietnam War was being presented in the living rooms of ordinary people, and the way the conflict was being portrayed in the American media. 'The Unknown Soldier' appears on the band's 1968 album 'Waiting for the Sun.'
Released in 2013, 'The Next Day' was David Bowie's first album of new material in 10 years and included 'How Does the Grass Grow?' The song title refers to part of a mantra uttered by some soldiers during bayonet practice as they plunge their blades into a dummy.
'Spanish Bombs' deals with the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the devastation visited upon the nation that led to a dictatorship by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco. The song was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones and appears on the seminal 1979 Clash album 'London Calling.'
This anti-war movement anthem from the album 'Willy and the Poor Boys' was written in 1969 by CCR front man John Fogerty after the wedding of David Eisenhower (grandson of former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower) and Julie Nixon (daughter of Richard Nixon). Fogerty's message was about elitism and how the wealthy and privileged were able to dodge the draft while other "unfortunate sons" were shipped off to Vietnam.
'Harry Patch (In Memory Of)' is a tribute to supercentenarian Harry Patch, the last surviving combat soldier of the First World War from any country to have fought in the trenches. He died in 2009, aged 111. Released in 2009 by English rock band Radiohead, the track features Thom Yorke's vocals and a haunting strings arrangement.
One of the few contemporary songs to reference the American Civil War, 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' relates to the economic, social, and psychological distress experienced by a poor white Southerner during the last year of the conflict. Recorded in 1969 by The Band, the track appears on their eponymous second album.
The threat of nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union prompted Sting to write this song in 1985 criticizing the then-Cold War policy adopted by the two superpowers and which could only lead to mutual assured destruction. His lyrics rhetorically ask if Russians love their children, too, and mention "Oppenheimer's deadly toy," a reference to the atomic bomb.
'Draft Morning' is a song written in 1967 by David Crosby while he was still a member of The Byrds. It deals with the horrors of Vietnam and serves as protest against the conscription of men into the military during the conflict. The track appears on the band's 1969 album 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers,' though by then the group's five-piece lineup had been reduced to three.
'Stop the Cavalry' is a anti-war song that became an unexpected 1980 Christmas hit for English musician Jona Lewie. It's themed around the trenches during the First World War, but the lyrics later reference nuclear fallout, as tensions between the West and the Eastern Bloc were particularly fraught during the time.
Sources:(History) (Paley Center) (The Guardian)
See also: Are these the most influential protest songs ever recorded?
Joan Baez was a well-known voice of protest during the 1960s. With 'Saigon Bride'—originally written as a poem by Nina Duscheck, and set to music by Baez—the songstress laments the war in Vietnam by asking how many dead men will it take before hostilities cease, and "how many children must we kill/Before we make the waves stand still?" The track appears on her 1967 album, 'Joan.'
U2's raw, driven 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' describes the horror and disbelief of a witness present during the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters. It's the opening track from the Irish band's 1983 album 'War,' and is one of their signature statements.
After watching a 1982 television documentary called 'Vietnam Requiem,' British musician Paul Hardcastle was inspired to write '19.' The title comes from the documentary's narrative that the average age of an American combat soldier in the war was 19 years old. The single, released in 1985, was a worldwide hit.
Wistfully delivered by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, 'Army Dreamers' is sung from the perspective of a mother whose son has just been killed in a war. It's presumed the theater of conflict is Northern Ireland, though the province is never specifically mentioned. Instead, the lyrics suggest the fatality took place during military maneuvers. The single is taken from the 1980 album 'Never for Ever.'
Bruce Springsteen touched a raw nerve in 1984 with his anthem condemning the plight of Vietnam veterans who upon returning home were largely ignored by the government and the American public. 'Born in the U.S.A,' taken from Springsteen's 1984 album of the same name, was a huge worldwide hit.
Written by Mark Knopfler in 1982 during the Falklands War, 'Brothers in Arms' is lyrically focused on militarism and, specifically, a wounded solider dying on the battlefield surrounded by his comrades as he slips away. The single, taken from the band's eponymous 1985 album, was re-recorded by Knopfler in 2007 to raise funds for British veterans who he said "are still suffering from the effects of that conflict."
Veteran Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young wrote 'Love and War' as a way of addressing the heartache and pain suffered by those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The anti-war anthem appeared on his 2010 album, 'Le Noise.'
Written by Roger Waters, 'Corporal Clegg' tells the story of a shell-shocked British soldier who loses his leg in the Second World War. The song is autobiographical—the man in the song is Waters' father! The track appears on 1968's 'A Saucerful of Secrets,' and is the first mention of conflict in a Pink Floyd song.
Controversial German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein recorded 'Deutschland' in 2019. It's written by Till Lindemann and explores his homeland's often dark and violent history, from fierce Germanic tribes and the First and Second World Wars, to the Red Army Faction and modern-day rioting.
Elton John takes us back to the American Civil War with 1970's 'My Father's Gun,' which tells the story of a young Confederate whose father has just been killed. After burying him, the grief-stricken conscript takes up his old man's gun and goes off to rejoin the fighting, and by doing so inherits the cause his pa was fighting for. The song is on the 'Tumbleweed Connection' album.
'Ruby' tells the story of a man "whose legs are bent and paralyzed," a Vietnam veteran who returns home from a "crazy Asian war" to find his wife no longer has any feelings for him. A number of artists had recorded the track before Kenny Rogers and his band made it an international hit in 1969.
Penned by Dylan in 1963, 'Masters of War' is essentially a protest against the Cold War nuclear arms buildup of the early 1960s and appears on the classic album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.'
To promote 'Pipes of Peace,' Paul McCartney portrayed a British and a German soldier in a video that recreated the famously poignant moment when troops from both sides met up in No Man's Land and exchanged photos of their loved ones while other soldiers fraternized and played football during the 1914 Christmas truce. The track appears on his 1983 album of the same name.
Warfare has provided inspiration for a catalog of songs written to express anger and despair but also of hope and reconciliation. Most anti-war songs promote peace in some form, while others sing out against specific armed conflicts. Some tracks warn of the dire consequences of going into battle, while a few serve as eye-witness accounts. All, however, are recorded as reminders of the futility of war, and just how senseless and devastating it can be.
Click through and note these songs about war.
Anti-war songs and other records about war
Songs exploring the nature of conflict
MUSIC Records
Warfare has provided inspiration for a catalog of songs written to express anger and despair but also of hope and reconciliation. Most anti-war songs promote peace in some form, while others sing out against specific armed conflicts. Some tracks warn of the dire consequences of going into battle, while a few serve as eye-witness accounts. All, however, are recorded as reminders of the futility of war, and just how senseless and devastating it can be.
Click through and note these songs about war.