# Anti-war songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699 "2015-04-28T04:08:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/101 "2015-05-02T00:15:44Z")
> [@JimInJersey](#): > > +1. An untarnished-by-popular-acclaim masterpiece. Hard to believe it was fifty years ago - 1964ish, from That Was The Week That Was - David Frost, and a Python-esque skit news program that predated SNL’s Saturday Update and Stewart and all the rest. And “We’ll All Go Together When we Go,” another classic, was over five years before that. And “The Old Dope Peddler” and other great songs are well over 60 years old. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/102 "2015-05-02T01:15:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And “We’ll All Go Together When we Go,” another classic, was over five years before that. And “The Old Dope Peddler” and other great songs are well over 60 years old. One could also argue that “The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be” is anti-war in a sense. Tom Lehrer was not just a classic but way ahead of his time. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/103 "2015-05-02T01:26:35Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a song by Jimmy Dean called “[Dear Ivan](http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dear+ivan+youtube&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=C8EFE6D715A84882A7B7C8EFE6D715A84882A7B7)”. I was expecting it to be jingoistic, but it’s actually about peace and universal brotherhood… quite surprising to me considering it was not only a country song from 1961 but was in fact a hit (#9 on the country charts). It was OK until the God part. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/104 "2015-05-02T02:27:31Z")
_Born in the USA_ is, in part, an anti-war song. Also an early work from Springsteen, _Lost in the Flood._ ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/105 "2015-05-03T11:40:36Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > [Fortunate Son](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec0XKhAHR5I) by CCR I love the song and sentiment but never thought of it as an anti war song? Fwiw, I see it as pointing to the self-serving hypocrisy of elites, particularly in the US where the political class are happy for the working class to make untold sacrifices on the behalf of the owners of capital, in the name of _freedom_, etc. Best imagined with GWB humming it as he protected the skies of Texas from the Vietcong. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/106 "2015-05-03T13:56:30Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > ANZAC day was last weekend… > > [And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg) > > 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 go a waltzing Matilda with me > And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong > Who’ll go a waltzing Matilda with me? And it would have even been better if the lyrics actually related to an Australian army unit. Suvla Bay was entirely British. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/107 "2015-05-03T14:04:24Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Since you mention the Byrds, their version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is one of my favorite songs of any kind, and IMO anti-war enough for this thread. Turn Turn Turn has possibly the oldest lyrics of any song. It comes from the Bible Eccsleslaistes so I’m not certain it is an anti war song. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/108 "2015-05-03T15:34:30Z")
Oh my, if I don’t mention local boy Billy Joel, my neighbors will run me out on a rail. [Goodnight Saigon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoXd_FSdkw). ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/109 "2015-05-03T17:29:16Z")
If the “War on Terror” counts, let me propose _Ashcroft’s Army_ by John McCutcheon: [https://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/ashcrofts-army](https://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/ashcrofts-army) ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/110 "2015-05-03T20:16:55Z")
I’m also fond of Malvina Reynolds’s _Gentlemen of Distinction in the Army_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BwH-_-MvgjA/hqdefault.jpg "We hate to see them go, the gentlemen of distinction in the") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwH-_-MvgjA) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/111 "2015-05-04T05:47:07Z")
I think you’ll all enjoy these two songs from the May 1941 album [Songs for John Doe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_John_Doe). The performers are the Almanac Singers, which consisted of Pete Seeger and others. The Ballad of October 16th [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhbrYhL3OPk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhbrYhL3OPk) info from [http://www.folkarchive.de/oct16.html:](http://www.folkarchive.de/oct16.html:) > [@](#): > > Set to the tune of ‘Jesse James,’ ‘The Ballad of October 16th’ was one of Lampell’s earliest works; the title of this vitriolic anti-Roosevelt song refers to the day in 1940 when Congress passed the peacetime draft law. “No other peace song of the pact era proved more popular in the Communist movement,” Richard Reuss later wrote. C For Conscription / Washington Breakdown [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrX9p90z7w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrX9p90z7w) ---
**Author:** ![bb49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@bb49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bb49)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/112 "2015-05-05T05:18:30Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I love the song and sentiment but never thought of it as an anti war song? > > Fwiw, I see it as pointing to the self-serving hypocrisy of elites, particularly in the US where the political class are happy for the working class to make untold sacrifices on the behalf of the owners of capital, in the name of _freedom_, etc. > > Best imagined with GWB humming it as he protected the skies of Texas from the Vietcong. I took this song as being anti-draft, more than an anti-war song. > [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > [For What It’s Worth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_What_It's_Worth_(Buffalo_Springfield_song)) is not actually an anti-war song. I agree that originally it was not written as an anti-war song, but it was adopted by the anti-war movement. Another song that fits the same bill is American Woman by the Guess Who. This is the short version. [http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqfpkTTy2w](http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqfpkTTy2w) It too was seen as an anti-war song, at least in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![AustinTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@AustinTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AustinTX)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699/113 "2015-05-08T23:27:17Z")
[http://gregorypage.bandcamp.com/track/anti-war-demonstration-song-bonus](http://gregorypage.bandcamp.com/track/anti-war-demonstration-song-bonus) Got booted when I tried to post as a link. This one isn’t well-known, but it’s one of my faves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-war-songs/718699.md?page=5)