Record Press would like to mark the Centenary of the start of the First World War aka The Great War, with this poem written by the Record Press author, followed by a Top 15 Best Anti War Songs…….
The War to End all Wars
It was meant to be the war to end all wars
But they carry on with exactly the same cause
Political arrogance, hubris and imperial greed
Without it, for war there would be no need
And at the going down of the sun
The same one that set on the Hun
We are the same as our enemies
They too marvelled at the poppies
They experienced the same fear
Year on year on year on year
Four years of carnage and atrocity
Impossible to dodge the bullet’s velocity
What on Earth was it all for
The war to end all war?
Simon Sterland February 2014
Top 15 Best Anti War Songs to mark the First World War Centenary
1) Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On? ( 1971 ) – Anti Vietnam war song based on the experiences of Marvin Gaye’s brother who was a “Vietnam Vet”.
2) Pink Floyd – Us And Them ( 1973 ) – Pink Floyd track from the album “Dark Side of the Moon”, depicting the sheer lunacy, chaos and confusion of the First World War trenches, directed by Generals 20 miles from the front, holed up in luxury Chateaux.
3) Supertramp – Fool’s Overture ( 1977 ) – A poignant lament to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who was castigated for appeasing Hitler and ultimately taking Britain into the Second World War. With clips of Winston Churchill’s wartime speeches, it references the Dunkirk rescue and the Battle of Britain.
4) John Lennon – Imagine ( 1971 ) – Lennon calls for a world without social, political and religious division and therefore free of war.
5) Edwin Starr – War ( 1970 ) – Probably the most direct and blunt anti-Vietnam war song and probably the most catchy anthem.
6) OMD – Enolagay ( 1980 ) – Enolagay was the name of the US plane that dropped the first atom / nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan to end the Second World War
7) Paul Hardcastle – Nineteen ( 1985 ) – Hardcastle’s hypnotic song is laced with US news clips about the Vietnam War
8) Jonah Lewie – Stop the Cavalry ( 1979 ) – This song portrays the misery and suffering in the First World War trenches, with a soldier fantasising about being home for Xmas with his girlfriend.
9) Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes ( 1984 ) – Written at the height of the Cold War between the USA & Soviet Union, when the world feared it was the edge of the precipice of a nuclear war.
10) John Lennon – Happy Xmas ( War is Over ) ( 1972 ) – Another anti-Vietnam war anthem.
11) Barry McGuire – Eve of Destruction ( 1965 ) – A war protest song, focussing on the biggest concerns in the US in the 1960s, Vietnam & the Cold War.
12) Status Quo – In the Army Now ( 1986 ) – This song decries US imperialism and war mongering represented by “Uncle Sam”.
13) Sting – Russians ( 1985 ) – Sting calls upon the West to humanise the Soviets and see beyond the US anti-Communist propaganda.
14) Kate Bush – Army Dreamers ( 1980 ) – This song laments the loss of young men who join the army through desperation in the absence of jobs in “Civvy Street”
15) Paperlace – Billy Don’t Be A Hero ( 1974 ) – Set during the American Civil War, this song tells the story of the futility of the death of a Cavalry soldier
