Any Major Peace
First up: I lied a bit with the title of this mix. The “Any Major” bit is accurate, but the playlist looks more at war than peace, even if all the songs agitate for peace. There certainly are no ballads of green berets in this collection.
I recall the existential fears many had in the 1980s of a nuclear way; some of the tracks here appeared in the context of those anxieties. Perhaps I was naïve, but I didn’t really share these fears. I trusted in the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction, even as I scratched CND signs into wooden benches.
I trusted that none of the world’s leaders, unappealing and corrupt though they were, would be crazy and stupid enough to take us the verge of nuclear conflict. Unappealing and corrupt and stupid as our present world leaders are, today fears of a nuclear conflict are reasonable and, indeed, conscientious.
This mix of songs looks at war from various perspectives; I’ve tried to give a broad sweep of them. Which means that I had limited place for songs about soldiers, of which there are many. The key number here is Richie Havens’ Handsome Johnny (it was either that or Universal Soldier) and The Pogues’ great version of Eric Bogle’s The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, which is set in the First World War but nevertheless represents the inhuman experience of the battle. (I don’t want to think of soldiers who love the killing for the sport of it, especially when their victims are civilians.)
There are many more songs about war I might have included. In the end I added just two as bonus tracks, one of which doubles the number of present Dylan songs. The other, Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag, I had included before Country Joe McDonald’s death on Saturday. His big Fuck You to war — of course, the Woodstock version — serves as a great closer to this mix and as a fitting epitaph, letting the writer of one of the great anti-war anthems have the last word. Whoopee, we’re all gonna die.
This mix can serve as an extension to the mixes about songs against the Vietnam War I posted a long time ago. They are up again: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-protested covers and this text in PDF format. PW in comments.
1. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – War (live) (1985)
What the War? “Blind faith in leaders will get you killed.”
2. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes (1984)
What the War? “Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?”
3. Bruce Cockburn – If I Had A Rocket Launcher (1984)
What the War? Bruce is going all Falling Down on the merchants of war…
4. Gil Scott-Heron – Work For Peace (1994)
What the War? Who profits from war? Who loses? Gil lays it all out for us.
5. Randy Newman – Political Science (1972)
What the War? Remember when verses like this were satire, not speeches from the Oval Office? “We give them money, but are they grateful? No, they’re spiteful and they’re hateful. They don’t respect us, so let’s surprise them. We’ll drop the big one and pulverize them”
6. Della Reese – Compared To What (1969)
What the War? “President he’s got his war, folks don’t know just what it’s for. Nobody gives us rhyme or reason, have one doubt they call it treason.”
7. Richie Havens – Handsome Johnny (1967)
What the War? Soldiers through history. “And, here comes a guided missile.”
8. Phil Ochs – I Ain’t Marching Anymore (1965)
What the War? Handsome Johnny is done with marching for The Man.
9. The Fugs – Kill For Peace (1966)
What the War? “If you don’t want America to play second fiddle, kill, kill, kill for peace.”
10. The Pogues – The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (1985)
What the War? Australia’s youth sent to its bloody graves in WW1
11. Tracy Chapman – Why? (1988)
What the War? The double-speak of “Love is hate, war is peace, no is yes, and we’re all free.”
12. Willie Nelson – Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth? (2006)
What the War? “We believe everything that they tell us. ‘They’re gonna kill us, so we gotta kill them first.”
13. Bob Dylan – Masters Of War (live) (1984)
What the War? The real beneficiary of war is the arms industry.
14. Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky (1979)
What the War? What it’s like to be bombed.
15. XTC – Generals And Majors (1980)
What the War? Generals and Majors always seem so unhappy unless they got a war.
16. John Lydon & Afrika Bambaataa – World Destruction (1984)
What the War: “Brainwash mentalities to control the system, using TV and movies, religions…” In 1984 as in 2026.
17. Black Sabbath – War Pigs (1970)
What the War: “Making war just for fun, treating people just like pawns in chess. Wait till their Judgment Day comes!”
18. Plastic Ono Band – Give Peace A Chance (1969)
What the War: Yeah, all we are saying…
BONUS TRACKS:
19. Bob Dylan – With God On Our Side (1963)
What the War: “I can’t think for you, you’ll have to decide whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.”
19. Country Joe McDonald – Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag (Live) (1969)
What the War: “Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.”
PW = amdwhah
R,I.P. Country Joe McDonald
Thank you for your amazing essay! Shocking to me that I only know 2 of the songs, I think. So I’ll check out the others, and look up the Vietnam era, volumes 1 & 2
The set plays very well. I made a private playlist of it, with Wire Train’s version of God On Our Side from their Between Two Words album swapped in for Dylan’s. Still works nicely.
Melba! Billy! Thank you!
I just played this through on shuffle mode and the final (shuffled) track for me was Willie’s “Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth?”. Pretty solid closing track, even if that’s not how you drew it up. Thanks for this solid compilation!