Last week, I spent some time in Ohio visiting with an old friend who has seen his been in the service and seen his fair share of Iraq and Afghanistan. We didn’t talk much about the war, but he did make some comments about how it’s impacted his day-to-day life back in the States. He deleted his Facebook page because a soldier he knows was captured by insurgents who threatened to look up and harm his friends/family via the social network. He broke his leg in Ohio and refused to let a surgeon with the last name of Hussein operate on him. The hospital assigned him a new doc.
All this got me thinking about modern day war/protest songs, so we compiled a short list of ten. Lucero’s track about lead singer Ben Nichols’ grandfather heading to WWII is one of my favorites of all time. I’m sure we missed some, so leave a comment with any others – as long as they occurred post-2000 and aren’t the work of Toby Keith.
Lucero – The War
Joe Pug – Bury Me Far From My Uniform
Jason Isbell – Dress Blues
The Black Angels – First Vietnam War
Delta Spirit – People, Turn Around
Wilco – War On War
A.A. Bondy – American Hearts
Tom Waits – The Day After Tomorrow
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State Radio – Camilo
Pearl Jam – Worldwide Suicide
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Josh Ritter – “Girl In The War” & “Thin Blue Flame”
Lucero – “The War”
Love this song. It’s always a plus when an artist can sing a song live and it sounds just as good as the studio version.
Definitely a fan of Lucero.
SirIndie
SirIndie.com
Good call John. We discussed “Temptation of Adam” by Ritter, but it really wasn’t a war song, even though it’s about two people falling in love inside a missile silo.
Probably need to throw something from the Thermals’ “The Body, The Blood, The Machine” on that list. i’m partial to “Here’s Your Future” and “Back to the Sea” myself, but the whole thing pretty much is a Bush/War protest album.
Radiohead- Harry Patch (In Memory Of). This song is about the oldest surviving veteran from WWI.
I think Delta Spirit’s “9/11″ is also a worth candidate.
I’d add “Rich Man’s War” and “Home to Houston” by Steve Earle, “One More American Song” by The Duke and the King and “Banks of the Leopold Canal” by the Deep Dark Woods.
“Another Bad of Bones” by Kevin Devine is a worthy candidate. He actually has a lot of protest songs but this is the most recent and one of my favorites.
Drive-By Truckers : The Man I Shot http://www.archive.org/download/dbt2008-01-10..ak40s.flac16/dbt2008-01-10t15_vbr.mp3
Is a good one.
I also like their cover of Mama Bake a Pie Daddy Kill A Chicken.
oh another good one
Tim Barry – South Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQONvYuRDB0&feature=related
I love the song ‘Dress Blues’ by Jason Isbell. The lyrics are awesome and really paint an amazing picture about what it would be like for the families. He captures the south in his song. Tugged at my heart.
Sherryce Emery
SINGER/SONGWRITER
@Sherryce – Agreed. He has a way of writing southern, small town poetry that’s completely genuine.
@Paul – Damn! I had DDW’s Leopold Canal on my mental list and forgot to add it. Here’s that track from our session: http://www.hearya.com/mp3/Sessions/ddw/01_Banks_Of_The_Leopold_Canal.mp3
He’s relatively unheard of at this point, but Portland-based singer/songwriter Zack Orr has a song called “Alien” that blew my mind at his gig last week. His album is coming out soon and I think this song is up:
http://www.myspace.com/zackorrmusic/
Joe Pug – “Bury Me Far From My Uniform”
Um…this is one is ok…but I’d prefer “The War” by Lucero.
SirIndie
SirIndie.com
SirIndie.com – Bury Me Far From My Uniform is an amazing tune. Let those lyrics settle in a bit. Some of his best lyrics to date IMO.
Old Crow Medicine Show “Big Time in the Jungle”
Another great one is “Hero of War” – Rise Against
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DboMAghWcA