XTC has several pretty blatant anti-war songs. Generals and Majors from Black Sea is obvious (Generals and Majors always / seem so unhappy 'less they got a war,
and Calling Generals and Majors / Generals and Majors everywhere / Calling Generals and Majors / your World War III is drawing near
), as is Reign of Blows:
I just don't care who you are
When death draws up in his car
And talks in terrorist tones;
Remember violence is only a vote for the
Black Queen to take back the throne
Reign of Blows also mentions the freedom-taking justified in wartime with the second verse, ending in the line And by the half light of burning republics / Joe Stalin looks just like Uncle Sam.
This World Over, also from The Big Express, depicts the horrible result of a nuclear exchange, for the survivors. English Settlement's Melt the Guns is so blatant as to not be very listenable, although it's also about media presentation of violence, not just gun ownership. Here Comes President Kill Again is pretty blatant, but a bit more abstract than Melt the Guns and so more listenable (or maybe it's just my upbringing in the pro-gun South):
Here comes President Kill again
Broadcasting from his killing den
Dressed in pounds and dollars and yen
President Kill wants killing again
Hooray, hang out the flags, Queen Caring is dead!
Hooray, we'll stack body bags for President Kill instead!
Nonsuch features War Dance:
There's a cheap sensation
Keeping Fleet Street wide awake
Everyone wants a slice of
The jingoistic cake
And they're resurrecting Churchill
And bringing national service back
Fueling power and glory fever
Makes for a sicker Union Jack
A couple other songs have asides against war and violence. The ever-controversial Dear God has an appropriate line:
And all the people that you made in your image
See them fighting in the street
'Cause they can't make opinions meet
About God
From Oranges & Lemons, Scarecrow People also comments with, Now while you're here, can you advise us / on a war we'd like to start against some / scarecrows over there, a different shade?
