| Toto – Africa Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
This song is clearly about Vietnam. "I hear the drums echoing tonight / But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation" The drumbeats are the gunfire that the speaker hears as he lies in the mud underneath the moon. "She" is the angelic strike that the speaker has called in. "She’s coming in 12:30 flight / The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation" The strike is due at 12:30. The moonlight beams shine on the wings of the F-4 Phantoms as they approach the strike zone. The speaker feels that those same stars, those stars that all his fellow soldiers see, are his guide in the see of war to salvation. His salvation is the elimination of Communism. "I stopped an old man along the way / Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies / He turned to me as if to say, hurry boy, it’s waiting there for you" The old man is Charlie. The soldier, despite the horrors of war, recognizes the ancient wisdom of the Vietnamese people. The old man (Charlie) accidentally points out a mine waiting for the soldier. "It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you / There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do" The soldier refuses to leave Vietnam, like the Hippie scum at home would like. At the same time, he recognizes the futility of the war. "I bless the rains down in Africa / Gonna take some time to do the things we never had" So he blesses himself and Vietnam. When he returns to the States, he's going to live it up. "The wild dogs cry out in the night / As they grow restless longing for some solitary company" The wild dogs are both the literal wild dogs in the bush, and the figurative wild dogs: the Viet Cong. Charlie wants the solitary company of Russia and China (company because they are fellow Commies, but solitary because Vietnam as a nation must go it alone. "I know that I must do what’s right / Sure as kilimanjaro rises like olympus above the Serengeti / I seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become" The soldier knows that he must do his duty and fight--for Communism is insidious and spreads like the plague. The soldier remembers the Western tradition started by the Greeks and has faith that it will conquer the Communist uprisings in the East. By doing his duty, the soldier hopes to the monster that war has created inside of him. |
|
| Björk – Bella Símamær Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This work must have poured forth from the loins of a Goddess. These words encapsulate the gutteral yell of the Cosmos. Bjork is Her ambassador. | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.