Now here's the deal with this series of song portraits I'll be doing: Richard Thompson is one of the best guitar players in the world, and he's also a writer of timeless dark songs on the level of Dylan and Tom Waits. And there are piles of nice clips available on Youtube. So I'll basically do a series of introductions to some of his greatest songs.
We'll start out with the stunning standout track from his most recent album. "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" is a protest song against the Iraq war. Being an old folkie and rock n roller, and also a moderate muslim, it comes as no surprise that Thompson is no big fan of Bush and Blair's folly. With this searing song I think Thompson manages to do what Neil Young didn't quite manage to do on HIS Iraq protest album: write a truly classic anti-war song about this horrible mess. It also helps that Thompson hasn't sounded more plain rock n roll in years.
According to Thompson the language in the song is inspired by browsing various web-sites with modern soldiers slang.... the most obvious being the 'Nam/'Dad slang thing used in the song title. But there are lots of other lyrical goodies scattered throughout the song. And toward the end he manages to succesfully marry this modern song with the death-obsessed themes of his more folk-based song: "...And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams / And who's that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart / And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name / Must be old Death a-walking / Must be old Death a-walking"
Great song, basically.
And great live version from a UK tv appearance:
Out in the desert there’s a soldier lying dead
Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head
Another day that could have been me there instead
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
You hit the booby trap and you’re in pieces
With every bullet your risk increases
Old Ali Baba, he’s a different species
Nobody loves me here
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
I’m dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
I’ve got a wife, a kid, another on the way
I might get home if I can live through today
Before I came out here I never used to pray
Nobody loves me here
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dawn Patrol went out and didn’t come back
Hug the wire and pray like I told you, Mac
Or they’ll be shovelling bits of you into a sack
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.
And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams
And whose that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart
And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
7 muzzle monkeys standing in a row
Standing waiting for The Sandbox to blow
Sitting targets in the wild west show
Nobody loves me here
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody’s dying if you speak double-speak
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
No comments:
Post a Comment