Mine is actually from a World of Warcraft machinima. It’s a song sung by a mother, to her son, who has gone off to war. Familiarity with WoW is not essential; the only things you need to know is that Westfall is an agricultural district, and Sentinel Hill is the local military outpost. The mother who is singing raised her son on a farm, in the shadow of Sentinel Hill.
I feel like the message of the song is universal. No matter the country, no matter the cause, mothers everywhere must grieve when their sons become soldiers and go off to war.
The air stands still,
as I find myself again before Sentinel Hill.
Cruel time leaves no trace,
and the last thing that you said to me
was just the look upon your face.
(Chorus):
You believe in something beautiful,
(I know) worth fighting for –
but a harvest moon won’t bring
my Westfall child back from war.
Even sunlight is cold,
and I can’t look where you used to play,
among these fields of gold.
All the bitter seeds are sown,
and I’m fighting for a reason
to believe you’re coming home.
(repeat Chorus)
And I’m waiting here still,
while the shadows just grow longer
over Sentinel Hill.
Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny 'bout) Peace Love and Understanding” will probably always be one of my favorites.
Richard Thompson’s “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” is a damned fine example. Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here
“Dad” refers to Bagdad.
One of the best of all time has got to be Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”. But the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain.
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Billy Bragg is my go-to anti-war poet - Between The Wars,for instance. Anti-Thatcher, but also anti-war. Tender Comrade - a love song of sorts, but also anti-war.
Also Costello’s Shipbuilding (theWyatt version especially)
This.
Also No Man’s Land/Green Fields of France (I like The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s version)
It’s a little twee but I’m fond of*Stop the Cavalry* by Jona Lewie.
Now I wheel myself down to the crossroads of town,
To see the young girls and their lovers.
And my mind is afire, it’s alive with desire,
Christ, I’d barely begun, now it’s over.
In my wheelchair for life, my mechanical wife,
I’m supposed to be cheerful and stoic.
I’m your old tried-and-true, Yankee Doodle to you,
Clean-cut, paralyzed and heroic.
One Friday night at a football game
The Lord’s Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead
Crying all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read but nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair
