I have a few things to say, firstly about this song. This song is one of the most timeless, masterfully wrote songs ever. War has been around since year zero and will always be a horrible, inexcusable way to sort out whatever problems one set of people have with another, Masters of War is timeless, it transcends all time because war is always disguisting and brutal. This song talks about those who instigate these wars, the fuckers that sit behind desks and sign away lives like these people exist in their bank accounts as currency to spend to buy what they want in another country or place, your oil shall cost 100,000 lives, yes they can live with that. We can all sit here and accept war as having a natural place in society, or we can actually do something about it, Bob Dylan tried to educate with this song, but it is up to us to act on the emotions that songs like these bring out in us all, not to just sit back and accept but to be proactive. Secondly, a lot of posts here treat Bob Dylan like he is some sort of songwriting god and genius and that there is not anyone like him today, well, there is. There is hundreds of people who write songs just like this, write poems just like this, write long discourses just like this, just as good as this, but they will never be allowed to be heard outside indie/cult circle, record industry, governments and those big business who have billions of dollars invested in the killing and destruction of people will not allowed another 1960's counterculture to occur. They permiate the airwaves with mind numbing crass, callow, meaningless crap, and people buy it up, eat it up like its the best thing since potatoes. Another thing, just because someone is young doesn't mean that they are not mature or wise or have ideas or think more intelligently than older people, this sort of thing, "oh hes 21 yet writing songs like this" all stems from very old fashoned values that young people should be seen and not heard and that their opinions are not of value, but it is true that a lot of young people are titheads, but we shouldn't really be surprised when one turns out to be a genius when it comes to expression him or her self.
I have a few things to say, firstly about this song. This song is one of the most timeless, masterfully wrote songs ever. War has been around since year zero and will always be a horrible, inexcusable way to sort out whatever problems one set of people have with another, Masters of War is timeless, it transcends all time because war is always disguisting and brutal. This song talks about those who instigate these wars, the fuckers that sit behind desks and sign away lives like these people exist in their bank accounts as currency to spend to buy what they want in another country or place, your oil shall cost 100,000 lives, yes they can live with that. We can all sit here and accept war as having a natural place in society, or we can actually do something about it, Bob Dylan tried to educate with this song, but it is up to us to act on the emotions that songs like these bring out in us all, not to just sit back and accept but to be proactive. Secondly, a lot of posts here treat Bob Dylan like he is some sort of songwriting god and genius and that there is not anyone like him today, well, there is. There is hundreds of people who write songs just like this, write poems just like this, write long discourses just like this, just as good as this, but they will never be allowed to be heard outside indie/cult circle, record industry, governments and those big business who have billions of dollars invested in the killing and destruction of people will not allowed another 1960's counterculture to occur. They permiate the airwaves with mind numbing crass, callow, meaningless crap, and people buy it up, eat it up like its the best thing since potatoes. Another thing, just because someone is young doesn't mean that they are not mature or wise or have ideas or think more intelligently than older people, this sort of thing, "oh hes 21 yet writing songs like this" all stems from very old fashoned values that young people should be seen and not heard and that their opinions are not of value, but it is true that a lot of young people are titheads, but we shouldn't really be surprised when one turns out to be a genius when it comes to expression him or her self.
Brian