Hammerheads Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Red October 

Cover art for Hammerheads lyrics by Shriekback

Hammerheads are the religious extremists; the scary people like the "Quiverfull" people, like Al-Quaida; they can't be reasoned with because you can't reason a man out of something he didn't reason himself into. They want to drive their philosophy and way of life down the throats of all men because they feel their god is on their side. They might use guns or words or stolen aeroplanes but they're all dangerous, and they'll shout and push until they get their way or civilized men put them down.

@Red October

While the lyrics do fit Al Qaeda pretty well—or, even better, ISIS—there's no way that's what Shriekback was thinking in 1984/5. Back then, the idea of religious fanatic terrorists was fantasy. And it was a fantasy about Christians, not about Muslims.

Osama bin Laden was already working with the CIA to recruit and train foreign Muslim fighters to help expel the Soviets from Afghanistan, but nobody was worried that this would ultimately to a global network of fanatical terrorists. Terrorism was something that people did for local, political reasons—the IRA in England, the Druze in Lebanon, etc....