Yesterday evening, Tuesday, September 11th 2007, my brother Alex, my buddy Steve and I drove up to Barrie to play a show for Georgian College students at their campus bar, The Last Class, where Steve and I performed weekly for several years. At the end of our three-hour set, thinking about the thousands who lost their lives six years ago and the projected one million-plus who have lost their lives since in Afghanistan and Iraq, we spontaneously decided to close by singing Gulf War Song by David Matheson of Moxy Fruvous. I was pleasantly surprised to see more than one person in the audience singing along. The song was first recorded in 1992 by the Thornhill, Ontario-based band, but remains powerful, moving, and relevant. The below video is provided primarily for the audio–the images are hit and miss, IMO.

We got a call to write a song about the war in the Gulf
But we shouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings
So we tried, then gave up, ’cause there was no such song
But the trying was very revealing
What makes a person so poisonous righteous
That they’d think less of anyone who just disagreed?
She’s just a pacifist, he’s just a patriot
If I said you were crazy, would you have to fight me?

Fighters for liberty, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don’t tell me I can’t fight, ’cause I’ll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me

So we read and we watched all the specially selected news
And we learned so much more ’bout the good guys
Won’t you stand by the flag? Was the question unasked
Won’t you join in and fight with the allies?
What could we say…we’re only 25 years old?
With 25 sweet summers, and hot fires in the cold
This kind of life makes that violence unthinkable
We’d like to play hockey, have kids and grow old

Fighters for Texaco, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don’t tell me I can’t fight ’cause I’ll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we

He’s just a peacenik and she’s just a warhawk
That’s where the beach was, that’s where the sea
What could we say…we’re only 25 years old?
And history seems to agree
that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we

Is that how it always will be?