Time for a song...

[avevale_intelligencer]

...in light of various thoughts about violence and pacifism that have been cropping up of late, and proximately nudged to the surface by a chance reference in lil_shepherd's journal, but absolutely not related to the post in which the nudgery occurred. I can't remember if I've posted this song before, but if I have, apologies for being boring.

IF *I* HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER
(Tune: "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Bruce Cockburn)

Here come the freedom fighters
Some new atrocity
Everybody hates them
Just for fighting to be free.
I can understand their anger
'Cause they're people just like me
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd throw it in the sea.

I don't believe in holy causes
Or in the lines upon some map
I don't believe in fading empires
Bolstered up by cant and crap
And when I see the death of tyrants
Sure I want to cheer and clap
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd melt it down for scrap.

On the broad banks of the Lethe
Stand the corpses one and all
Old men, young men, wives and children
Late arrivals at the ball
I cry for all the victims
Who heard their country's call
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd smash it on that wall.

I want to make them all see
Every daughter and son
They think if they just pass the karma
One day it will all be gone
I know the torturers and killers
Ought to pay for what they've done
But if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would not pass it on.

Say I've never lost a loved one
That's a truth I can't deny
Say that if it ever happened
All my high ideals would die
Say I'd never hold my anger
Or let the bloodlust pass me by
Well, if I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I might fail, but I would try!

Comments

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

I have admired this take on the Cockburn original ever since I first saw it in my copy of the Zander Nyrond songbook. Hard to ask for a clearer statement in the humane cause, or one more elegantly made. From what I know of Cockburn's work, I think he would have a similar response.

[howeird]

Forgive me, this just escaped out my fingertips and onto the keyboard:
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd launch rockets in the morning
I'd launch rockets in the evening
All over this land
I'd rocket launch danger
I'd rocket launch warning
I'd rocket launch the love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
---
[ducks & covers]

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I had a similar thought (same song) on seeing the title. When I think of rockets I think of two things -- space travel and fireworks. The Chinese had gunpowder for centuries and all they used it for was celebrations...

[(Anonymous)]

Not actually true, I think. Wikipedia cites the first known recipe for gunpowder, c. 1044 AD, as being for use in incendiary bombs and siege engines. But it's a nice thought.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

That was me, by the way.

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

How excellent! My only problem is, the chorus refuses to stop running through my head to the tune of Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars":

If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
I'd (never) nuke your love...

:-}

[batyatoon]

You have heard Tom Smith's "Barenaked Cockburn," haven't you?

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. I *knew* it had to have been done before, I just couldn't remember where...

[batyatoon]

I don't remember when I first saw this one, but I still love it lots.

(I'm not a pacifist. But it's a good song.)