Posted: 8/21/2004 10:45:04 AM EDT
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There's a Pink Floyd song by this title that I used to crank the stereo up to. But, a few years ago I really listened to the lyrics and they're pretty disparaging towards soldiers. I like Pink Floyd's music but I can't put aside what they're promoting with this song. (They had other less popular songs in the 80's that specifically attacked Reagan and Thatcher.) Does "Dogs of War" bother anyone else here, especially vets? I had the same reaction to Lynard Skynard after I heard Saturday Night Special. -YJ |
Well, I don't have the song handy (YET!), but I looked up the lyrics, and I tend to agree. But isn't most of Floyd disparaging in GENERAL? I just listened to a song of theirs that I thought was uplifting ("Coming Back to Life"), and even those lyrics are fairly "down"...  
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Hell, I thought it was about Mercs. The lyrics fit with the movie "Dogs of War", get paid to do a job, then fuck them in the end. I like the song and the movie. The Dogs of War Dogs of war and men of hate With no cause, we don't discriminate Discovery is to be disowned Our currency is flesh and bone Hell opened up and put on sale Gather 'round and haggle For hard cash, we will lie and deceive Even our masters don't know the web we weave One world, it's a battleground One world, and we will smash it down One world ... One world Invisible transfers, long distance calls, Hollow laughter in marble halls Steps have been taken, a silent uproar Has unleashed the dogs of war You can't stop what has begun Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion We all have a dark side, to say the least And dealing in death is the nature of the beast One world, it's a battleground One world, and we will smash it down One world ... One world The dogs of war don't negotiate The dogs of war won't capitulate, They will take and you will give, And you must die so that they may live You can knock at any door, But wherever you go, you know they've been there before Well winners can lose and things can get strained But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain. One world, it's a battleground One world, and we will smash it down One world ... One world |
Don’t forget Sting's song " Russians " Although the prophetic lyrics of that song are a moot point now  |
My MOM was in Dogs of War. The begginning of the movie where they are getting on the DC-3(?) amid a sea of refugees. Mom was the chick that got partially lifted into the plane then put back down.  echo6 |
You know, I hadn't bought a music CD for years...but there was this one fairly new song I had heard that sounded cool and every copy I DLed off KaZaA was corrupted, so I said "Why not buy the CD?" So I bought it...and OF COURSE, that one song is the only good one on the whole CD. Which is why I don't buy music CDs. |
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Actually you have to take the song in context of the era it was written. The expression Dogs of War was an expression coined by an ex-SAS agent who wrote the book with the same title and subsequent movie followed having to do with mercenaries. The late 70's and early 80's was both the height and decline of the mercenary movement which IMHO climaxed with our desertion, under Jimmy Carter, of the Angola mercenaries hired and sent to fight the Cubans. Read the lyrics in context with the term "Soldier of Fortune" and it kind of fits. We still use hired guns except now having learned the lessons of that era do a much better job of making them more legit with less hiding the fact making them more PC. Not one of those things you will read in a history book so kind of had to live during that era and tuned into the military. Tj |
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Also keep in mind that Roger Waters was not part of the band when this song was published and he did not write the lyrics. They (Floyd) changed quite a bit after the parting of Roger Waters in the early 80's, the rest of the band wanted to be more "mainstream" and "pop star", while Waters wanted to write lyrics that "hit you". Waters went on to publish 4 solo albums continuing this ideal, while Floyd went on to publish 3 continuing theirs. My favorite Floyd Album: The Final Cut. "Final Cut" is a reference to cutting down the curtain we all have hiding our most inner emotions. The irony of the name is that it was the last album Pink Floyd w/Roger Waters published.
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Manville tear gas launcher I think. Arnie used one on the LAPD in Terminator 2 (exiting the building thru lobby to steal SWAT van). If I remember correctly in the book "Dogs Of War" the mercs used black market MP40s. |
Your memory is good and you read the book. BTW, the authour of the book was put up on charges by the UK for treason since they claimed he betrayed classified secrets even though the names were changed to protect the innocent/quilty. Tj |
Some of the people here are wayyyy too young. Or the rest of us are getting wayyyy too old. |
It's been some ~20 years since I read the book. Saw the movie first though. Did they convict the author? |
"Dear Dixie Chicks, In response to your attack on President Bush I REFUSE to download any more your songs off of Kaaza-Lite, and will REMOVE all the songs I have already downloaded on my hard drive and Muvo MP3 player. Take THAT!" |