Protest Songs

[lizziec]

Listening to the extended version of Barenaked Ladies are Me while heading up to no1typo's to fix the internets there I suddenly caught part of one of the songs on it "Fun and Games" and realised that the protest song isn't dead and BNL had included one on their new album.

Having listened to it I don't think they like President Bush, the war on terror or Iraq very much at all...

A copy of "Fun and Games" is uploaded here here (ogg) and here (flac). Help yourself.

We sent in the army
They sounded alarms
We saw it coming from a mile away
We kept it off radar
‘Cause we had to say our
Intentions were to save the day

Why did you fail to see?

It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
They were shocked and they were awed and they were blown in half
Fun and games
We were just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun would be a powder keg

We kept it all long-range
And made a regime change
You'd have thought it would have been a gas
And when it got ugly
We sat around smugly
Because you bought our little joke en masse

Don't look at me that way

It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
We knew your sons and daughters would be blown in half
Fun and games
We were just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun would be a powder keg

Put a smile on
We're the ones that you selected
Leave that dial, son
Because we just got re-elected
In a while our bill of rights will be rejected, and all the blame will be deflected, the forests will be unprotected, the nation's poor will be neglected, creation myth is resurrected, the new salute is genuflected, the Gallup poll will be respected, a gallows pole will be erected
And all this will go undetected

And while you all slumbered
We sat and crunched numbers
Of all the casualties we could afford
There's no need to draft them
You could hear us laugh then
The poor and black all need their room and board

Did I say that out loud?
It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
And now our very nation has been blown in half
Fun and games
We were just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun would be a powder keg

ION: Ben and I have tickets to go to the London BNL concert at the end of March! squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Comments

[bethanthepurple.livejournal.com]

<3 protest songs.
I like my chumbawumba ones. Bitterness & sarcasm ftw.

And in a similar vein...

[atsampson.livejournal.com]

... can I recommend "Commander", from the last Girlyman album ("Little Star")?

Was it all there before you in a dream?
Was it something that only you could see?
Was it gold, or even better, was it weapons-grade metal,
or a glimpse of your God?
Was it whispered right into the bowls of your ears?
Did you hear what you wanted to hear?
Did they take you and make you believe it was clear,
when they made you commander and you couldn't be it?

Well, the women just didn't like your eyes,
and the big boys, they cut you down to size;
when the war came you ran for your life
as your businesses dried.
Were they all there before you just waiting in line
to include you in their cruellest design?
You were bad fruit; they knew you wouldn't ripen on the vine
when they made you commander, when you couldn't be it,
you couldn't be it.

As for Jesus, you never felt much but you prayed,
'cause you needed to believe that you could be saved...

Now in private you don't cry but you have doubts.
It's just better if you never let them out.
Was it all there before you in a dream?
Was it something that only you could see?
'Cause it's right there before you when you close your eyes;
you would kill it with a pill but it would still rise.
It's the pain of a great love, you cannot deny,
and you may be commander but you don't believe it,
you don't believe it, you don't believe it,
you don't believe it.

(And, indeed, the rest of the album...)