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Did you know you were going to shoot
off the top of a four year old girl's head
And look across her car-seat down into her skull
And see into her throat and did you know
that her dad would say to you,
"Please sir, can I take her body home?"
Oh wait, you totally did know... that that would happen
Cuz you're a jock who was too stupid and too greedy
And too unmotivated to do anything else but still be
The biggest and still do what other people tell you to do
You did it to still be a winner
You shot your grenade launcher into peoples windows and
Into the doors of peoples houses why should I care if
you get killed?
off the top of a four year old girl's head
And look across her car-seat down into her skull
And see into her throat and did you know
that her dad would say to you,
"Please sir, can I take her body home?"
Oh wait, you totally did know... that that would happen
Cuz you're a jock who was too stupid and too greedy
And too unmotivated to do anything else but still be
The biggest and still do what other people tell you to do
You did it to still be a winner
You shot your grenade launcher into peoples windows and
Into the doors of peoples houses why should I care if
you get killed?
Lyrics submitted by PLANES
Track duration: 04:46
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It's pretty obvious when listening to this song (particularly the beginning) that Jamie used similar techniques. Black Angels was written as a way of dealing with the Vietnam War. This is Jamie's way of doing the same with our current war situation.
JS: See, I don't really…That's obviously a really difficult statement to justify, but obviously within the context of what people have chosen to do with their lives, it's a little bit difficult to think of it in other terms sometimes. Not all the time, but certainly sometimes. I don't think that people who have joined the military have been misled about what their job in the military is. The job of the military, clearly, is to kill people for imperialistic, corporate government. I feel entirely differently about people who were involved in the Vietnam era because there was the draft and people were forced to do it, but now it's totally voluntary, and people are choosing to become assassins and killers for the government. The song is based on an article where a journalist followed a Special Forces troop into Baghdad, and the troop just talked constantly about how much they wanted to kill people, and how they were hired killers, and they were really into it. And they were completely unapologetic about it and not thinking about the political context at all, or about the repercussions of what they were doing, both to themselves and to the families of the people that they were blowing up. Now, one thing that people have brought up to me that I didn't think about at the time that I was writing the song is: what about the people who are living in total destitution and they just don't have any other options? And, that's not something that I had thought about. Sometimes I think that can be a valid case, but on the other hand, how destitute do you have to be to become a murderer? I'm sure that's not people's motivation, but that's what the point of the military is, and the fact that that is a possibility for someone joining the military isn't a mystery. Bearing that in mind, I feel almost entirely unsympathetic for people who are middle class who decide to join the military. If you want to be of service to your country, join AmeriCorps, or something like that. I just cannot abide… It's inexplicable to me that someone would want to do that with their life. So, when I say, "Why should I care if you get killed?" I'm asking that question clearly. I'm not completely dismissing the idea of why somebody should care…
The song is about the events from the book "Generation Kill."
P.S.- I know absolutely nobody in the Army, so that isn't why. This shit just screams "I'M EDGY, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS RECORD".
even though the song suggests that american soldiers deserve to die for the acts they've committed jamie stewart does not wish death on them in this song
he is apathetic to their deaths "why should i care if you get killed?"
it would be blasphemous and offensive to most people if you were to say i don't care if american soldiers die, yet Iraqi soldiers and innocent civilians die far more frequently and there is no remorse
they do not care about their deaths because they are not american, we do not know them
the death of strangers is irrelevant all the time except in the case of soldiers where their lives suddenly become sacred for no other reason
he's saying there's no prestige or honour in the war regardless of itself, in many cases soldiers are scum, "supporting the troops" is not inherently right
and i don't think this song is personal, it's intended for the whole "war culture" or "jocks" as he put it which of course he means in the sense of a cruel, arrogant, egocentric males
he is pretty hardline but i think he's saying that essentially everyone who enlists is either a general "waste of life" ("too stupid") or too unmotivated to do something ambitious rather than partaking in a slaughter that is seen as prestigious ("too greedy")
anyone who says this is an immature poorly contrived song, the words are very spontaneous and universal and are almost poetic
it's an art piece not something to listen to often, but clearly some of you haven't listened past 2:40 because the strings are very fitting and emotional
i love how some people are trying to defend these terribly bad lyrics with equally bad rationale.
and i tell you this im against the war, but this is just a whiney complaint. to summarize, it's horrible.
this is such a powerful piece.