Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hell
Come attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell
Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell
Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hell
Come attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell
Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell
Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Lyrics submitted by GoochyLittlePig
This Is Why We Fight Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
War and avarice describe today's government pretty well. The lust for war and control, as well as greed. The reason we fight and lie awake at night is because of the political unrest that goes on. Come attrition. We need a smaller hand governing us. The bride is quiet because of all the secrecy behind the closed doors of congress. The bride is also of unquiet things such as wars and oppression. We will fight the archers and the infantry to defend our rights to live and be human beings. When we die, we will die free with our arms unbound because we are free once again.
So bring it on big government. Push us too far and come hell, we will take our freedoms back from you.
Dunno. That's how I see it :)
At it's heart, it's a patriotic song. It's about maintaining the freedoms that all too many Americans have come to take for granted. Only until it's gone do we realize what we've lost.
Awesome song.
We will die with our arms unbound"
Created an account just to note that, though people are suggesting that this line is about love, it's clearly about the willingness to sacrifice in order to attain freedom. And commitment to one's freedom even in the face of danger and the likelihood of sustaining personal harm. And yearning for freedom.
To me, it seems a little overwrought in the context of the US, though I suspect this is what he had in mind as well. Not that I'm unconcerned about the loss of some civil liberties in the US, but it doesn't resonate very much. But I can see this in the context of social movements--social movements happening now as well as historical social movements. Civil rights, LGBTQ rights, all of the liberation movements seen in US history... And people committed to living and dying as free and emancipated subjects.
In another context, it was a very timely song given recent events in Egypt and Tunisia--and given other uprisings in the Middle East and Maghreb. It makes me think of the martyrs who died in those countries fighting to live and die with their "arms unbound."
pt8218 mentioned the "Why We Fight" films from the WWII era. Well, there was a mini-series on HBO about ten years ago called "Band of Brothers", about the 101st Airborne E Company that parachuted into France as part of the Allied invasion at Normandy. It's a good show and I have to admit that if I flip past the reruns on cable I am stuck on the couch all afternoon. Anyway, there was one episode actually titled "Why We Fight". By this time in the series, the Germans were pretty much whipped and the war was starting to wind down. As the pace of the action slowed the soldiers had time to start thinking about what is the point of war and was it all worth it. They were tired and burned out.
Then one of the soldiers, out on patrol, stumbles across a concentration camp set up outside of the village. When they go to investigate they are met face to face with the horror, "the reek of bones". As they try to process what they are seeing, the incomprehensible evil that they have exposed, they realize why they are there and why their sacrifice was not in vain.
There is one scene where the commanding officer walks into the camp and this ragged skeleton of a man walks up to him and hugs him. That was the first thing I thought of when I heard the lyric "Come to me now, come lay your arms around me". What a heartwrenching thing to see.
In summary, the lyrics in the song start by describing war with terms of "avarice" or greed and "attrition" or loss. As it progresses, lyrics like "die with our arms unbound" demonstrate that sometimes there are reasons "why we fight", above and beyond the political machinations of this world.
I don't think it's intentional and I still love this song.
That said, it doesn't really bother me, I still love the video