Timeless Song Lyrics (where you’d least expect them)

Today’s example: “Civil War” by Guns & Roses.

I heard this song again recently for the first time in a long time, and was unexpectedly impressed with the depth of the lyrics. Of course it rocked – it was Guns & Roses when Guns & Roses was still Guns & Roses (if you follow me).

But I found myself wondering, did renowned prick and last-minute concert-canceller Axl Rose really write these lyrics? 15 years ago??

This song originally debuted on some benefit album for the trendy refugees of the day. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the album or who the refugees were. (So it goes.) George Harrison was on the album too, but then you expected George Harrison to be on all the best benefit albums. It was GnR’s contribution that was the one thing that wasn’t like the others.

Anyway, the songwriting credits are actually a bit complicated and probably purposefully vague:

(Slash / McKagan / Rose)
Special Thanks Niven / James

So maybe Axl is still just the crude racist, homophobic former rock god he seems to be and somebody else supplied the lyrical gravity, but I’m sure this tune is available on iTunes and it’s well worth the 99¢. It certainly, sadly stands the test of time.


Civil War by (see above)

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before


Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before


My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars


Did you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land


And
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your 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


* “We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer”


*This passage credited to “Peruvian Guerilla General.”