Guns Before Butter Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Richard sh 

Cover art for Guns Before Butter lyrics by Gang of Four

It’s about government spending and being sick of defense spending (guns) always exceeding production of goods (butter) using war and death as examples

@Richard sh yeah theres a lot to parse out from just a few verses. First you have the literal economic model of "guns versus butter", it's a macroeconomic idea, just look up that on Wikipedia, it's well known. Then in the first verse he doesn't want to die for an ideal he doesn't believe in (firstly the fatherland) as he thinks he's more than iron in his blood, otherwise what's that under his short (a heart). The face he talks about the Fatherland likely means the Nazis but I think there's a little more to it underneath but I'll circle...