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If I Had a Rocket Launcher Lyrics
Here comes the helicopter, second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay
I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate
On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation, or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate
I want to raise every voice, at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate
To fall down from starvation, or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die
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This song is great. In my mind, one of the finest protest songs ever written.
@Major Valor Agreed! And while waiting for our leaders to do something about Putin, about the climate crisis, about razor wire cutting down refugees at the border, about gun massacres in schools… I definitely relate. With all the partisan hate and dissension over green M&M’s, drag queens and Disney unfortunately the best we can do is not make it worse
@Major Valor Agreed! And while waiting for our leaders to do something about Putin, about the climate crisis, about razor wire cutting down refugees at the border, about gun massacres in schools… I definitely relate. With all the partisan hate and dissension over green M&M’s, drag queens and Disney unfortunately the best we can do is not make it worse
For the record, U.S. Involvement began in the 1950's when it supported the overthrow of Guzman. It continued mostly unabated for the next 40 years. The only exception would be the Carter Administration. Hence, when the US returned to its previous "policy", the left blamed the new administration. But, this was all part of making us safe from Communism. Feel safe yet? Here come the unmanned drones, 10 thousandth time today..........
@montresor Unfortunately too true
@montresor Unfortunately too true
This song is amazing.
Bruce Cockburn wrote it after he took a trip to Nicaragua in the early 80's (a type when political oppression was going on and the US government were being a load of assholes. Kinda like what Bush is doing in Iraq, asshole).
Anyway, this song is about an individual who has seen so much terror and suffering and he's wishing that he could just end all of the violent issues, even if it means killing American troops who are oppressing people-although this person doesn't believe in violence but is so desperate to make shit end
@River Wolf Guatumala, not Nicaragua. American troops? The Reagan administration was giving military assistance to Guatemala but there were no American troops in either country.
@River Wolf Guatumala, not Nicaragua. American troops? The Reagan administration was giving military assistance to Guatemala but there were no American troops in either country.
@River Wolf Guatumala, not Nicaragua. American troops? The Reagan administration was giving military assistance to Guatemala but there were no American troops in either country.
@River Wolf Guatumala, not Nicaragua. American troops? The Reagan administration was giving military assistance to Guatemala but there were no American troops in either country.
This song is generally about U.S. government-backed civil conflicts in the 1980's. guatemala is name-dropped, but it is also about the nicaraguan civil conflicts and the contras in Iran that were supplied by the Reagan administration and killed many of their own people. (the iran-contra affair) it is sung from the viewpoint of a fed-up witness to these acts of violence, who is willing to go to the most desperate measures to end the violence. all in all, a great political song.
No, the song is not about an individual. No, Guatemala is not "name-dropped". No, it's not about Nicaragua.
In early 1983 at the invitation of the world hunger organization OXFAM he toured two Guatemalan refugee camps on the border with Mexico. "I was in this refugee camp, hearing these unbelievable stories of the atrocities these people had fled from, stories that were beyond anything the grossest slasher movie could come up with, and in the background was this helicopter going back and forth along the border. The Guatemalan flyers had a recent history of having strafed the camps from the air, even though the camps were in Mexico. The desperate condition these people were in, and their dignity in the face of that desperation, all this horror made me feel the people in those helicopters had surrendered their humanity long since. When I wrote 'Rocket Launcher', I was in San Cristobal de Los Casas in Mexico. I was in a hotel drinking a bottle of Scotch the day after I came out of the refugee camps, and I was in tears thinking about it and wrote the song."