A few members of Chumbawamba (Mavis Dillon, Boff, and Harry Hammer) got together to release a 7" under the name Passion Killers. The four tracks were all covers.
'Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die' Rag (Country Joe and The Fish, 1967)
Come on all you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in desert lands.
So put down your books and pick up the gun
We're gonna have a whole lot of fun!
(Chorus)
And it's 1 2 3 what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn!
Next stop another Viet Nam.
And it's 5 6 7 open up the pearly gates.
There ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die.
Come on generals let's move fast,
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out there and break some heads.
The only good enemy is one that's dead.
And you know the peace can only be won,
When you blow 'em all to kingdom come!
(Repeat chorus)
Well come on Wall Street - don't move slow,
Why man, this is war-a-go-go!
There's plenty of money to be made
By supplying the army with the tools of the trade.
Just look at it my way - if you drop the Bomb,
Well, it's all part of the fun!
(Repeat chorus)
Well come on mothers don't delay,
Pack your boys off to the Gulf today.
Come on fathers don't hesitate,
Send them off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box!
(Repeat chorus)
Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello, 1983)
Is it worth it?
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy's birthday
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children; soon we'll be shipbuilding
Well, I ask you--the boy said,
'Dad they're going to take me to task
'But I'll be back by Christmas'
It's just a rumour that's spread around town
Someone said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed
In the result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be re-opening the ship yard
And notifying the next of kin once again
It's all we're skilled in, we will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
Universal Soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie, 1966)
He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of thirty-one and he's always seventeen
He's been a soldier for a thousand years
He's fighting for Britain and he's fighting for Iraq
He's fighting for the USA
He's fighting for the Russians and he's fighting for Japan
And he thinks he'll put an end to war this way
He's fighting for democracy he's fighting for the reds
He says he's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide who's to live and who's to die
And he never sees the writing on the wall
But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Le Val
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body as the weapon of the war
And without him all this killing can't go on
He's the universal soldier
He really is to blame
His sword has come from far away no more
They come from you and me
And brothers / sisters can't you see
This is not the way we put an end to war?
Reuters (Wire, 1977)
Our own correspondent is sorry to tell of an uneasy time, that all is not well. On the borders there's movement. In the hills there's trouble, food is short, crime is double. Prices have risen since the government fell, casualties increase as the enemy shell. The climate's unhealthy, flies and rats thrive, and sooner or later the end will arrive. This is your war correspondent running out of tape, gunfire increasing, looting, burning, rape.
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