Olli Olli

Well, I hear that this has the same topic as Black Cab Motorcade: Protestant/Catholic conflicts in Ireland.

I'd just like to know who the "bookmaker" is and who the "gun running whore" is.

Also, the "Olli Olli all come free" reminds me of the shout at the end of a hide and seek game (my siblings and I used to say "ollie ollie in free"). Not sure what connection it'd have, but yea.

Uncertain is about the conflict going on- and that has been going on for years- between Russia and Chechnya.

heavy from walking we stopped for the night lettin' the shallow river unnerve our fright [It must be refugees from one of the areas of Chechnya or something that was attacked and now they're wandering... prob just one of those very general story telling devices Chad often uses] but night fell on us before dawn till all our hope was all but gone if everyman laid down his gun we would no longer be cause your war is your sickness and so is our disease [This song must be being told from the perspective of civilians in the territory that are being harshly affected by this war..... That last part metaphorically says that this war that we're a part of is hurting us all, and it's hurting us small people even more]

oh distant constant quarreling lot your risk is greater than what you've got [Probably speaks of the people running both countries that are making this war go on, and how the risk involved in it is more than they can actually afford to take] up in your highroom you carry us along along the road of our brother's gone [All you up high politicians and rulers, you continue to force me and everyone else in my generation into this war, just as you did to our predecessors]

we didn't fight back we fought to escape smuggling gasoline for food before we were of age [Going back to the perspective of the helpless civilians being caught in the middle of this battle, these must be children who are doing whatever they can in their squalid world to survive because this war has ravaged them and their families for a very long time]

cause your war is your sickness and so is our disease oh distant constant quarreling lot your risk is greater than what you've got up in your highroom you carry us along along the road of our brother's gone

we are so uncertain of the future that we may face [This huge, consistent war makes their future dangerous, and, uncertain] we don't like the burning up of everything we had in place [This country, their homes, were doing well before this war was started and now it's being decimated] someday we will be replaced by the guns of our sons and their fatherless rage [Implying that this war will continue to go on for generations and generations and will never end.... the "fatherless rage" means that the fathers of children will continue to die in this war and the children will grow up a very disturbed life because of it, only to follow in their fathers' footsteps] and we are not deserting but we see no course to take [We're complaining/pointing out the folly of what's going on, but we're not deserting the cause, we just don't know what to do to stop it]

no like a curtain falls and heralds the curtain calls [I'm not too sure what this means... anyone know?] comrad come alike time is no ally [They're rallying their soldiers to prepare to fight] little one are you in or out so quiet and so devout [The young men of this society must fight as well, but they're doing it very reluctantly] can you resign yourself to accept a better hell [Can you at least force yourself to fight for this cause and live in a not-so-horrible world?]

we'll not fall in their curse facing life in prison or possibly worse [We refuse to fall into the "life-curse" of fighting, being imprisoned, tortured, or killed] our fathers are calling mass asking us to drink from the pain of their past lives [Most likely something like... The ghosts of our fathers who died for this cause are asking us to take up arms and fight for their cause... in other words, "drinking from the pain of their past lives", and re-living their hardships]

oh distant constant quarreling lot your risk is greater than what you've got up in your highroom you carry us along along the road of our brother's gone

cause we are so uncertain of the future that we may face we don't like the burning up of everything we had in place someday we will be replaced by the guns of our sons and their fatherless rage and we are not deserting but we see no course to take

in the riot of your machine gun ways [Likely something like, "we're having to deal with this in the middle of your ways of death, pain, and suffering"... All the governments are doing is killing one another and we have no choice but to live in that world]