# The Best Anti-War/Protest Songs of All Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374 "2003-03-06T00:21:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/81 "2003-03-14T05:45:09Z")
am i the only white boy here who wore a dashiki in the 60s and 70s? how about “handsome johnny” by richie havens? the best one, however is “flowers of evil” by mountain. (more hippie stuff) ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/82 "2003-03-14T07:41:46Z")
Army dreamers by Kate Bush not mentioned yet? It’s about a teenage soldier who died in the army. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/83 "2003-03-19T01:24:16Z")
“Two Tribes” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![leroy\_the\_mule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6a8cbe/32.png) [@leroy\_the\_mule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leroy_the_mule)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/84 "2003-03-19T05:32:23Z")
“Some Mother’s Son” by the Kinks. A beautiful melody combined with chilling images. WHAM! > [@](#): > > Some mother’s son lies in a field > Someone has killed some mother’s son today > Head blown up by some soldier’s gun > While all the mothers stand and wait > Some mother’s son ain’t coming home today > Some mothers son ain’t got no grave > > Two soldiers fighting in a trench > One soldier glances up to see the sun > And dreams of games he played when he was young > And then his friend calls out his name > It stops his dream and as he turns his head > > A second later he is dead > > Some mother’s son lies in a field > Back home they put his picture in a frame > But all dead soldiers look the same > While all the parents stand and wait > To meet their children coming home from school > Some mother’s son is lying dead > > Somewhere someone is crying > Someone is trying to be so brave > But still the world keeps turning > Though all the children have gone away > > Some mother’s son lies in a field > But in his mother’s eyes he looks the same > As on the day he went away > > They put his picture on the wall > They put flowers in the picture frame > Some mothers memory remains ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/85 "2003-03-19T07:49:23Z")
**Casey1505** , good call. Simon and Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” was one of the very first anti-Vietnam War songs. It was in 1966. You’ll see some opinions around here that the Vietnam War protest didn’t really get going until the late 1960s. But the “teach-ins” began as early as 1965 and “Scarborough Fair” was maybe the first Vietnam protest song in 1966. It’s very mild as these songs go. The antiwar message is sort of mingled down in the mix and it reaches your brain subliminally at first before you even consciously register what you’re hearing. I’d like to recall a little-known single by Frank Zappa that came out in, I think, 1981. “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted.” This was when Reagan was starting to talk belligerent toward the Soviet Union. Since there was no actual war, or draft, at the time, the song didn’t catch on. Too bad; it’s vintage Frank. He starts off with a play of a young dude being drafted and his anxiety as he realizes what’s happened. Then the song starts and the chorus after a few repeats devolves into a very heavy, primitive drum beat and insistent chant “I don’t wanna get drafted!” I was tripping the one time I heard this and it was troubling, oh yes. The single’s cover showed American and Soviet tanks blasting away at each other, and the caption “Is This Trip Really Necessary?” in pseudo-Cyrillic letters with the backwards R. I can’t believe nobody has mentioned John Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die” from the _Imagine_ album. Well, it seems to start off as an antiwar song, but as it goes on it devolves into a hallucinogenic ramble about not much in particular except for free association and rhyming words for the sake of rhyme. Set to a stoned voodoo beat backed with wall of sound. Not one of Lennon’s more coherent efforts, but hey… Speaking of Lennon: “Give Peace a Chance” "War Is Over (If You Want It) “Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People)” are all great antiwar songs. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/86 "2003-03-19T07:59:55Z")
“The Green Fields of France”, as performed by The Men They Couldn’t Hang. That gets the job done. “Barrett’s Privateers” by Stan Rogers has a nice kick to it as well, and it’s a good song to drink to. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/87 "2003-03-19T14:45:35Z")
I’ll third **War** (“War! - hoo - What is it good for? Absolutely nothin!”) by Edwin Starr. And while it isn’t solely an anti-war song, I’ll fourth (or fifth) **Ball of Confusion** by the Temptations. ---
**Author:** ![Maci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Maci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maci)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/88 "2003-03-19T16:46:10Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by UnuMondo \* > \*\*On each three albums from 1985 - 1987 R.E.M. featured a song about American injustice against Central and South America. These were “Green Grow the Rushes”, “The Flowers of Guatemala”_, and “Welcome to the Occupation.” Don’t forget “Orange Crush”! I’ll throw in X’s “Country at War” and Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” Finally I will third the Pogues version of “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” ---
**Author:** ![Rib\_Eye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Rib\_Eye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rib_Eye)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/89 "2003-03-19T17:07:17Z")
Iron Maiden’s “2 Minutes to Midnight” As the reasons for the carnage cut their meat and lick the gravy, We oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies. The body bags and little rags of children torn in two And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you. As the madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song, To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun. And Guns ‘n Roses’ “Civil War” Look at the shoes your filling Look at the blood we’re spilling Look at the world we’re killing The way we’ve always done before Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed Look at the leaders we’ve followed Look at the lies we’ve swallowed And I don’t want to hear no more My hands are tied For all I’ve seen has changed my mind But still the wars go on as the years go by With no love of God or human rights 'Cause all these dreams are swept aside By bloody hands of the hypnotized Who carry the cross of homicide And history bears the scars of our civil wars ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/90 "2003-03-19T17:28:23Z")
I’ve been playing Chumbawumba’s new song a lot recently. I don’t know if it will have the legs that others here have, but it is more directly topical today. “9-11 got branded/ 9-11 got sold/ they’ll be noone left water/ all the seed you’ve sown.” ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/91 "2003-03-19T18:45:43Z")
Rib Eye beat me to Maiden’s 2 Minutes but he forgot Afraid to Shoot Strangers. Motorhead has 1916, and I’m sure a few others but off the top of my head I don’t know. Gary Moore has Out in the Fields, Military Man, After the War. Scorpions with Crossfire. I know I know plenty more but I can’t think of them without looking at my CDs. ---
**Author:** ![punkkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@punkkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/punkkid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/92 "2003-03-19T20:24:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gorillacus \* > \*\*Let me raise the old punk rock flag! > > ‘Tommy Gun’, ‘The Call Up’, and ‘Washington Bullets’ > by the Clash. > > Not your usual strum guitars and pick daisies type protest. > > I was going to add ‘I’m So Bored with the USA’, but that’s a song for a different thread. \*\* These songs rule the universe. Did you pick up the new Clash? Anyway, I’d like to add “Hate and War” buy Clash, and “911 For Peace” by Anti-Flag. Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Trari\_de\_Reeson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Count\_Trari\_de\_Reeson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Trari_de_Reeson)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/93 "2003-03-19T21:37:34Z")
Come on all of you big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again. He’s got himself in a terrible jam… Same song second verse… sigh ---
**Author:** ![Jerrybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jerrybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerrybear)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374/94 "2003-03-20T01:27:29Z")
A few more by Phil Ochs (or have these been mentioned already?): “We Seek No Wider War,” “White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land,” “One More Parade,” and “Cops of the World.” A particularly relevant one regarding our current so-called president is “Draft Dodger Rag” (also by Ochs). The lyrics describe Dubya perferctly: the chickenhawk who is all gung-ho for war, until the draft board calls his name. How I wish that Phil Ochs were still around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-anti-war-protest-songs-of-all-time/159374.md?page=4)