submissions
| Lucero – The War Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[hrdfarkr:15102] I've never interpreted it that way but I see where you're coming from. It actually makes the way I interpret the ending of the song make a lot more sense or at least has the same tone. Maybe all the soldiers were sick of hearing about God and cursed his name like the main character. They would probably be sick of a preachers comments about the dead being "with the lord in paradise." "Eat your supper with us" suddenly makes perfect sense when it's meant to metaphorically and actually means for them to stop preaching and be one of us-a soldier. |
submissions
| Lucero – The War Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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So what exactly does the character telling the story mean by "I could not stand to get my friends killed
So I took care of myself first?" I immediately thought suicide but a couple lines later he says "Now it keeps me up nights, what I could have done differently" which tells me either lived through his suicide attempt or that he was saying he stayed to himself so not to grow fond of those he knew may die when he sang "took care of myself first." The last lines always made me think that he blamed God for not allowing him to die when he attempted to..."I'd be no guest at the table of the Lord, His food was not to be mine ‘Cause I cursed His name every chance that I could And I recon that's why I'm still alive." Ben Nichols has never broken it down to specifics like this on any occasion I've heard him tell the background of the song. Is suicide way off the mark or does anyone else get that from the tone and lyrics? |
submissions
| Lucero – The War Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[Razzasawr:15101] I've personally heard him go into detail about where he came up with this song on three occasions. George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, AR 2016 and Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock 2014 & 2016. All three were solo shows where he usually opens up more, uses less profanity, and drinks little or even none in 2014...I think it has more to do with the wife and parents being in the hometown crowd. Anyway I pretty much quoted above what he said about the song in 2014. Either above below whatever |
submissions
| Lucero – The War Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[sakeofdrama:15100] Not according to Ben during a live solo acoustic set in Little Rock in August of 2014 when he played a rare alcohol free show for 300 at the seated Ron Robinson Theater. Although he played Ron Robinson again solo this year, the 2014 show was different than any past Lucero or Nichols show I've been to. It was no Storytellers but he did talk quite a bit between songs and The War and Mom were two he went into some detail on his songwriting process or inspiration. He didn't talk to his grandfather much before he passed away, esspecially about things like his being in WWII. He said when he got old enough for it to interest him his grandfather was gone. He wanted to write a song for his family that included about his grandfathers military service, so to make it as factual as possible he tried to track down his official military records but they unfortunately were lost in some fire or flood years before. He finally tracked down any living person known to have knowledge about his grandfather's military service trying to know him the best he could. After that he says he mixed fact with fiction and came out with The War, which in the is not an exact incident that happened on a certain date or even at all. It is a story inspired by stories by, to my understanding, men that knew or served with Ben's grandpa. |
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