Log of Smallship One - Passionate and Confused

06:10 pm May 13th, 2008

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User: smallship1 Name: Zander Nyrond Website: Zander's Tangle




			Log of Smallship One - Passionate and Confused - Time for a song... What a long, strange drip he's been...

smallship1


	Time for a song...
	...in light of various thoughts about violence and pacifism that have been cropping up of late, and proximately nudged to the surface by a chance reference in lil_shepherd's journal, but absolutely not related to the post in which the nudgery occurred. I can't remember if I've posted this song before, but if I have, apologies for being boring. IF I HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER (Tune: "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Bruce Cockburn) Here come the freedom fighters Some new atrocity Everybody hates them Just for fighting to be free. I can understand their anger 'Cause they're people just like me But if I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I'd throw it in the sea. I don't believe in holy causes Or in the lines upon some map I don't believe in fading empires Bolstered up by cant and crap And when I see the death of tyrants Sure I want to cheer and clap But if I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I'd melt it down for scrap. On the broad banks of the Lethe Stand the corpses one and all Old men, young men, wives and children Late arrivals at the ball I cry for all the victims Who heard their country's call But if I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I'd smash it on that wall. I want to make them all see Every daughter and son They think if they just pass the karma One day it will all be gone I know the torturers and killers Ought to pay for what they've done But if I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I would not pass it on. Say I've never lost a loved one That's a truth I can't deny Say that if it ever happened All my high ideals would die Say I'd never hold my anger Or let the bloodlust pass me by Well, if I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I might fail, but I would try!

What they all said (9) . Unless... You wanted to say something?


	Comments

	From: min0taur	Date: May 13th, 2008 06:25 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

I have admired this take on the Cockburn original ever since I first saw it in my copy of the Zander Nyrond songbook. Hard to ask for a clearer statement in the humane cause, or one more elegantly made. From what I know of Cockburn's work, I think he would have a similar response.

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	From: howeird	Date: May 13th, 2008 07:03 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

Forgive me, this just escaped out my fingertips and onto the keyboard:
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd launch rockets in the morning
I'd launch rockets in the evening
All over this land
I'd rocket launch danger
I'd rocket launch warning
I'd rocket launch the love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
---
[ducks & covers]

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	From: keristor	Date: May 13th, 2008 07:15 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

I had a similar thought (same song) on seeing the title. When I think of rockets I think of two things -- space travel and fireworks. The Chinese had gunpowder for centuries and all they used it for was celebrations...

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From: (Anonymous)	Date: May 13th, 2008 07:34 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

Not actually true, I think. Wikipedia cites the first known recipe for gunpowder, c. 1044 AD, as being for use in incendiary bombs and siege engines. But it's a nice thought.

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	From: smallship1	Date: May 13th, 2008 07:38 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

That was me, by the way.

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	From: mrgoodwraith	Date: May 13th, 2008 09:33 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

How excellent! My only problem is, the chorus refuses to stop running through my head to the tune of Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars":

If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
If I had a rocket launcher (If I had a rocket launcher)
I'd (never) nuke your love...

:-}

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	From: batyatoon	Date: May 13th, 2008 10:25 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

You have heard Tom Smith's "Barenaked Cockburn," haven't you?

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	From: mrgoodwraith	Date: May 13th, 2008 11:01 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

Ah yes. I *knew* it had to have been done before, I just couldn't remember where...

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	From: batyatoon	Date: May 13th, 2008 10:26 pm (UTC)		(Link to babble)

I don't remember when I first saw this one, but I still love it lots.

(I'm not a pacifist. But it's a good song.)

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	What they all said (9) . Unless... You wanted to say something?