I'm more than just a little curious how you're planning to go about making your amends to the dead

[sophiaserpentia]

Modern day anti-war songs are coming mostly it seems from heavy metal bands and punk rockers. One of my favorites is "Pet" by A Perfect Circle. A few days ago, sisyphus linked to this video ("Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums") based on an industrial-style remix of "Pet." I don't care much for the remix, but the message is pretty striking...

Don't fret precious I'm here, step away from the window
Go back to sleep

Lay your head down child
I won't let the boogeyman come

Counting bodies like sheep
To the rhythm of the war drums

Pay no mind to the rabble
Pay no mind to the rabble

Head down, go to sleep
To the rhythm of the war drums

Pay no mind what other voices say
They don't care about you, like I do, like I do
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils,
See, they don't give a fuck about you, like I do.

Just stay with me, safe and ignorant,
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep

I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and all your demons

I'll be the one to protect you from
A will to survive and a voice of reason

I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and your choices son
They're one and the same
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself

Swaying to the rhythm of the new world order and
Count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums

The boogeymen are coming
The boogeymen are coming

Stay with me
Safe and ignorant
Just stay with me
Hold you and protect you from the other ones
The evil ones
Don't love you son,
Go back to sleep


I'm also rather fond of "'Merican" by the Descendants:

We flipped the finger to the king of England
Then stole our country from the Indians
With god on our side and guns in our hands
We took it for our own

Built a nation dedicated to liberty,
Justice, and equality
Does it look that way to you? It doesn't look that way to me
It's the sickest joke I know

Listen up, man, I'll tell you who I am
I'm just another stupid American
But you don't want to listen, you don't want to understand
Just finish up your drink and go home.

I come from the land of Ben Franklin,
Twain and Poe and Walt Whitman.
Otis Redding, Ellington,
The country that I love...

But it's the land of the slaves, and the Ku Klux Klan,
The Haymarket Riot, and the Great Depression
Joe McCarthy, Viet Nam
It's the sickest joke I know

I'm proud and ashamed, every 4th of July
You've got to know the truth before you say that you've got pride

Now the cops got tanks 'cause the kids got guns
Shrinks pushing pills on everyone
Cancer from the ocean, cancer from the sun
Straight to Hell we go


Green Day's "American Idiot" has some good material too.

Edit: How could I forget the excellent video made by Michael Moore for "Boom!" by System of a Down?

Comments

[blue-leaf.livejournal.com]

did you see apc's Imagine video its on the band's site.
also here is a great one http://filmstripinternational.com/

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen either of those yet, I should take a look.

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to get into that Perfect Circle album, but now that I have I think I might like it even better than the first. It's really something -- and even still Pet stands out. I have a real soft spot for The Nurse Who Loved Me though...

But they have spoiled me for other music, so little even compares.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

It took a while before "The Nurse Who Loved Me" grew on me.

Well, there is still a lot of good music out there. But it helps when they make important messages like "Pet."

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

I do not typically care for politics in my music, but I think the message here, although there's some obvious connections to make to current events, is generally nonsectarian and psychological rather than political as such -- the mechanism of 'anti-identification' against the other as a means of consolidating authority is something we can use to analyze any political or social situation, and is a pitfall we've seen throughout the gamut of history and ideology.