Thoughts, musicians and war

Newsroom: The Benjamins

Hi guys,

we have chosen “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan because we listen to music often without a real meaning, avoiding those songs written on true events that should do reflect.

Bob Dylan through this song written more than 50 years ago still succeeds in getting the attention of listeners through words that still are worth.

The first time that we have listened to this song and we have read the lyrics we realized that it is about deep true subjects. So we suggest you to listen to it!

Bob Dylan released the album “The freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” in the spring of 1963. In the meantime, Martin Luther King pronounced his famous words “I have a dream” and there was also the murder of John Kennedy (president of the USA) in Dallas. The song’s melody was adapted from the traditional “Nottamun Town” (an English folk song which possibly dates from the late medieval period) and it became immediately a hymn for the pacifist. In the USA  and all around the world the radio was transmitting this song:

Come you Masters of war

You that build the big guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion'

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins.

How much do I know

To talk out of turn?

You might say that I'm young

You might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

That even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could?

I think you will find

When your Death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave

'til I'm sure that you're dead!

Let's reflect about this verse: “You play with my world, like it's your little toy”. The meaning is that the other person shouldn’t make the same mistakes he did in the past and we have to be kind and friendly with the other people, especially with someone that lives a hard life. So we have not to be evil and bad with the weak people.

We are all citizens of the world so nobody can obstruct us and our dreams.

Glossary

Lyrics: the text of a song
Bullet: a projectile that is fired from a gun
To deceive: to lie, trick
Drain: a hole through which water is carried away
To fasten: to attach, for example when you drive you have to fasten your safety belt
Trigger: you shoot the gun by pulling the trigger
Mansion: hall, residence
To flow: to run, for example water flows in a river
To bury: when you dig a hole in the ground to bury something
Fear: afraid, for example you can have fear of snakes
To hurl: to throw something away hard
Threatening: minacious
To be worth: the quality that makes something valuable
Forgiveness: the act of excusing a mistake or offense
Toll: a fee, a payment made for something such as the use of the roads
Casket: the box in which a corpse is buried or cremated
Pale: (of light) lacking in intensity or brightness
Lowered: below the normal level
Obstruct: when you obstruct something, you block it