# Songs about the Gulf War?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 8, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726 "2008-07-08T18:21:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/1 "2008-07-08T18:21:55Z")
Are there any songs about the (first) Gulf War?
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/2 "2008-07-08T18:24:15Z")
[Gulf War Song](http://www.fruvous.com/barglyr.html#gulf), by Moxy Früvous
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/3 "2008-07-08T20:07:58Z")
[“Wasteland of the Free”](http://www.schlatter.org/wasteland_of_the_free.htm) by Iris DeMent isn’t only about the Gulf War, but it’s mentioned.
> [@](#):
>
> We kill for oil then we throw a party when we win
> Some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin
> But he’s standin’ up for what he believes in
> And that seems pretty damned American to me
> And it feels like I’m livin’ in the wasteland of the free
Of course, if you didn’t know the song was written in 1996, you might think it was written yesterday. Not a thing has changed. (ok, maybe Guess isn’t as big a name, maybe)
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### Author:  [@A\_qui\_profite\_le\_crime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_qui_profite_le_crime)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/4 "2008-07-08T21:21:42Z")
[Afraid to Shoot Strangers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afraid_to_Shoot_Strangers) by Iron Maiden.
Beautiful track.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/5 "2008-07-08T21:31:33Z")
French language okay?
Jean Le Loup’s [1990](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAappAsGBO0).
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/6 "2008-07-08T21:46:10Z")
You just gave me flashbacks…back around that time a “remix” of Styx’s “Show Me the Way” spliced with speeches from Congressfolks debating the war resolution was on heavy rotation on my local classic rock station.
The song wasn’t written about that war though, but apparently a bunch of rock stations did variations of that theme according to the song’s Wiki page.
> **[Show Me the Way (Styx song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Me_the_Way_(Styx_song))**
>
> "Show Me the Way" is a song written by Dennis DeYoung and released as the second single from Edge of the Century by Styx. It peaked at #3 on the pop singles chart in March 1991. It is, to date, Styx's eighth and last top 10 Billboard single.
> Lead vocalist/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, a devout Roman Catholic, originally wrote the song for his son Matthew as a pseudo-hymn about the struggle to keep the faith in a "world so filled with hatred". Released in November 1990, the song was slowly scaling ...
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/7 "2008-07-08T21:50:50Z")
A bit further removed from the actual Gulf War, but there was a remix of Tracie Spencer’s This House which featured George H.W. Bush’s quotes inserted into the song. The song is about homelessness so the intent of adding Bush’s quotes about Saddam Hussein is to show how Bush was preoccupied with war and ignoring problems here at home.
Oleta Adams’ Get here was very popular during Desert Storm. It is a typical long distance love song, but obviously was applied to servicepeople stationed far from home.
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### Author:  [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/8 "2008-07-08T22:59:24Z")
Wasn’t [Highwire](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling+stones/highwire_20118039.html) by the Rolling Stones about the first Gulf War?
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/9 "2008-07-08T23:17:31Z")
Black Gold by Soul Asylum.
Dumbass song, and totally ignorant of history and reality, but nominally about the Gulf War.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/10 "2008-07-08T23:20:37Z")
_Slap Leather,_ by James Taylor, was about the Gulf War (among other things…the song also addressed globalization, American over-consumption, and phone sex - it’s a surprisingly subversive song and probably the closest to punk rock that James Taylor has ever gotten.)
> [@](#):
>
> Get all worked up so we can go to war
> We find something worth killing for
> Tie a yellow ribbon around your eyes
> Big Mac Falafel and a side of fries
> Yeah, Big Mac Falafel
> Stormin’ Norman
> I just love a parade
I love that he uses the image of a Big Mac Falafel to represent globalization and the gulf war.
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### Author:  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/11 "2008-07-08T23:34:23Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
Are there any songs about the (first) Gulf War?
[/QUOTE]
I remember the guy in Jarhead complaining that they are playing Vietnam music , where was the desert storm stuff.
Declan
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/12 "2008-07-09T00:05:39Z")
Darryl Worley’s [“Have You Forgotten?”](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/worley-darryl/have-you-forgotten-3876.html)
Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
Ably retorted to by Willie Nelson with [“Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?”](http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/lyrics/whateverhappenedtopeaceonearth.html)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we’ve been told from our birth
Hell they won’t lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar’s word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/13 "2008-07-09T00:07:22Z")
_Souls of the Departed_, by Bruce Springsteen, on the **Lucky Town** Album (1992). Not entirely about the war, but the first stanza is:
“On the road to Basra stood young Lieutenant Jimmy Bly
Detailed to go through the clothes of the soldiers who died
At night in dreams he sees their souls rise
Like dark geese into the Oklahoma skies”
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/14 "2008-07-09T00:10:33Z")
Springsteen [“Further On Up the Road”](http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/FurtherOn.html)
Now I been out in the desert, just doin’ my time
Searchin’ through the dust, lookin’ for a sign
If there’s a light up ahead well brother I don’t know
But I got this fever burnin’ in my soul
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### Author:  [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/15 "2008-07-09T00:12:41Z")
Darryl Purpose has the song “Don’t Tear Down” which speaks obliquely about “Watching the [sic] CNN while they’re rooting for the home team”. It then wanders into a sidetrack about a girl who lives downtown, and finally comes back around to:
_I did a lot of travelling in 1991
That’s the year American morality hit bottom
They’re dancing in the streets with blood on their breath
Praying to the war god and celebrating death_
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### Author:  [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/16 "2008-07-09T00:24:38Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves]
Darryl Worley’s [“Have You Forgotten?”](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/worley-darryl/have-you-forgotten-3876.html)
Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
Ably retorted to by Willie Nelson with [“Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?”](http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/lyrics/whateverhappenedtopeaceonearth.html)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we’ve been told from our birth
Hell they won’t lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar’s word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
[/QUOTE]
Psst! The Darryl Worley song is about the GWII 😉
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/17 "2008-07-09T00:30:24Z")
Some think GW2 was a reactivation of GW1. Bush does, f’rinstance.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-the-gulf-war/455726/18 "2008-07-09T13:47:49Z")
On _Tom’s Album_ (which is a collection of different versions of Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner) there is a song called _Waiting at the Border_.
You can listen for free on [Rhapsody](http://play.rhapsody.com/album/tomsalbum/waitingattheborder?didAutoplayBounce=true)