# Quote at Beginning of Guns N Roses's "Civil War" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2001, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605 "2001-10-16T00:32:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/1 "2001-10-16T00:32:02Z")
If you’ve heard the song, in the beginning theres a guy talking about a “failure to communicate” which seems to for some reason strike me as a Reagan quote, but it didn’t sound like Reagan’s voice. And what/who was the quote referring to? Note: There’s a factual answer to this question (I think), which is why I put it in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/2 "2001-10-16T00:34:56Z")
It’s Strother Martin, in a quote from “Cool Hand Luke”. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/3 "2001-10-16T00:37:03Z")
Oops, forgot the obligatory link: [http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0061512](http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0061512) “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. And I don’t like it any more than you men.” ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/4 "2001-10-16T01:27:03Z")
By the way, it’s mentioned in the liner notes of the album, if you own it. Along with the quote in the middle of the song (which might be mistaken for Reagan …) Unfortunately I don’t have my copy with me, so someone else will have to get that source if needed. It’s from a Latin American guerilla fighter. The second quote, by the way, is : “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” ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/5 "2001-10-16T02:27:01Z")
Thanks, but can someone explain what happened “last week” in Cool Hand Luke? I seem to recall Reagan’s nickname being “the great communicator” which is where I think I got the impression that that was a Reagan quote. ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/6 "2001-10-16T12:20:48Z")
If I recall correctly, the event that happened last week was the beating death of an inmate. ---
**Author:** ![zigaretten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/91b2a8/32.png) [@zigaretten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zigaretten)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-at-beginning-of-guns-n-rosess-civil-war/87605/7 "2001-10-16T18:37:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guy Propski \* > \*\*If I recall correctly, the event that happened last week was the beating death of an inmate. \*\* No, Luke just tries to escape. I believe this line comes after his first attempt.