Civil War
Guns N' Roses Lyrics
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
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
D'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
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no
Look at the shoes you're 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
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
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don't need one more war
I don't need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, SUSSMAN & ASSOCIATES, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: W. AXL ROSE, SAUL HUDSON, DUFF ROSE MCKAGAN, IZZY STRADLIN, DARREN A. REED, MATT SORUM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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"Civil War" is a song by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, which originally appeared on the 1990 album Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, a fund raising compilation for Romanian orphans. It is a protest song about war, that amongst other things says that a civil war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor." Notably, the United States was involved in no major military operations at the time of its recording, so it is mostly thought of as a tribute of sorts to 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest songs. Read Full Bio"Civil War" is a song by the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, which originally appeared on the 1990 album Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, a fund raising compilation for Romanian orphans. It is a protest song about war, that amongst other things says that a civil war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor." Notably, the United States was involved in no major military operations at the time of its recording, so it is mostly thought of as a tribute of sorts to 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest songs. It was written by Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan.
Slash states that the song was an instrumental he had written right before the band left for the Japanese leg of its Appetite for Destruction world tour. Axl wrote lyrics and it was worked into a proper song at a sound check in Melbourne, Australia.
Guns N' Roses performed the song at Farm Aid IV on April 7, 1990. This performance was televised.
It is the first track on Use Your Illusion II, appears on the compilation Use Your Illusion, and on Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits.
The song also mentions John F. Kennedy's assassination with the lyrics: "and in my first memories they shot Kennedy," as well as the battle for civil rights and the Vietnam War.
On September 27, 1993, Duff McKagan explains where the song came from in an interview on Rockline: "Basically it was a riff that we would do at sound-checks. Axl came up with a couple of lines at the beginning. And... I went in a peace march, when I was a little kid, with my mom. I was like four years old. For Martin Luther King. And that's when: "Did you wear the black arm band when they shot the man who said: 'Peace could last forever'?. It's just true-life experiences, really."
The song samples Strother Martin's speech in Cool Hand Luke ("What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.") and a Peruvian militant general's speech ("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").
The song ends with the telling line, "What's so civil about war anyway?", a word play on the dual meaning of the word civil.
The song also plays homage to American Civil War song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" with snippets of the tune used in the introduction, and then again in the outro.
"Civil War" is the last song on which drummer Steven Adler played for Guns N' Roses before being replaced by Matt Sorum.
The opening speech was used again in the GNR song "Madagascar" which appeared on Chinese Democracy, mixed in with other quotes.
Slash states that the song was an instrumental he had written right before the band left for the Japanese leg of its Appetite for Destruction world tour. Axl wrote lyrics and it was worked into a proper song at a sound check in Melbourne, Australia.
Guns N' Roses performed the song at Farm Aid IV on April 7, 1990. This performance was televised.
It is the first track on Use Your Illusion II, appears on the compilation Use Your Illusion, and on Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits.
The song also mentions John F. Kennedy's assassination with the lyrics: "and in my first memories they shot Kennedy," as well as the battle for civil rights and the Vietnam War.
On September 27, 1993, Duff McKagan explains where the song came from in an interview on Rockline: "Basically it was a riff that we would do at sound-checks. Axl came up with a couple of lines at the beginning. And... I went in a peace march, when I was a little kid, with my mom. I was like four years old. For Martin Luther King. And that's when: "Did you wear the black arm band when they shot the man who said: 'Peace could last forever'?. It's just true-life experiences, really."
The song samples Strother Martin's speech in Cool Hand Luke ("What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.") and a Peruvian militant general's speech ("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").
The song ends with the telling line, "What's so civil about war anyway?", a word play on the dual meaning of the word civil.
The song also plays homage to American Civil War song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" with snippets of the tune used in the introduction, and then again in the outro.
"Civil War" is the last song on which drummer Steven Adler played for Guns N' Roses before being replaced by Matt Sorum.
The opening speech was used again in the GNR song "Madagascar" which appeared on Chinese Democracy, mixed in with other quotes.
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Jose Rodriguez
The two most important parts in this song:
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
This is so fucking true.
Aceite de Olivas
everybody gangsta till you drown in the regrets of your past.
LAB 444
Well , If your a seal you have learned how to swim, that would be a start.
Erick Randyson
@Reaper If what you mean by Gangsta is that they are predatory thugs and bullies then yeah they are gangsta in that they only attack what they are sure they can overwhelm just like any other predators. The only exception to that is when they have no choice like defending their territory for example. Notice the United States has NEVER directly attacked Russia or China with hard military assets nor have they done so to the US or each other. This is a fools argument if you cannot see that and also thugs and bullies have never impressed me nor do I fear them so they only use underhanded chicken shit tactics against me if they think they can do so without me knowing who did it. My comment still applies. Keep your gangsta and have a nice day.
Reaper
@Erick Randyson not true, military always gangster
Erick Randyson
meh everybody is gangsta til the real fighting starts and the odds are against them. Simple as that!
Franklin Bruh420
Right
Yoshikage Kira
These sins...are now yours to bear
Yoshikage Kira
@Greg Halvorson That was a JoJo reference bruh
Greg Halvorson
No they aren't... No living person is responsible for the sins of other people, alive or dead... We are responsible for our own actions. Period.
Oldsmobile Thompson
And Gondor shall call in return