Days In the Stockade

 

Originally written in mid to late 1991 as a reaction to the first Gulf War when Norman Schwarzkopf was Major General and Salman Rushdie was vilified for The Satanic Verses. Can't go wrong with a lyric about wars and perceived heresies. They travel well. Interesting how you can re-imagine old lyrics, but I think the productions are pretty generic, as opposed to what a producer would do in the real world. It's an "engineer's production". The drums sound good. The vocal phrasing is clunky. Who are these players?

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A farmer (Farmer Graeber)
Without a grain of hate in his heart
Salman Rushdie
Fearing the words that set him apart
A politician shakes the hand
To stroke his ego
While the men of our cities take refuge
In ideals of evil

Crowds all gather
To hear the truth en masse
Shouting, grunting, and spitting
On the leaders of the ruling class
Words of wisdom
Once uttered from a golden throne
Fall upon our deaf ears
In a silent primal drone

Days in the stockade
How long could this go on?
Days in the stockade
With weapons of an endless war

A soldier on the front line
Covered in stars and stripes
His mother waits at home
For the daily dose of media hype

Copyright 1991 Lee Barry. All rights reserved.