Photo: Axl Rose of Guns ‘n Roses | Before its release as the opening track on the Guns N’ Roses album Use Your Illusion II in 1991, “Civil War” first appeared on the 1990 charity compilation Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal. It was also released as an EP in 1993 and included on the band’s Greatest Hits album in 2004.
In his autobiography, Slash stated that the song was initially an instrumental he created.
(Spoken Intro: Strother Martin from the film Cool Hand Luke)
What we’ve got here is failure to communicate
Some men, you just can’t reach
So you get what we had here last week
Which is the way he wants it
Well, he gets it
*Whistling*
And I don’t like it any more than you mean
[Bridge]
Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before
Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before
[Verse 1]
My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands, time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2]
D’you wear a black armband when they shot the man
Who said: “Peace could last forever”?
And in my first memories, they shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall in D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom when it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’ for their promised land
[Chorus]
And I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor [Citizens of Russia: Are you listening?]
You’re power-hungry, sellin’ soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh? I don’t need your civil war
Ooh, no, no, no, no, no, no
[Bridge]
Look at the shoes you’re filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more
[Verse 3]
My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still, the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
And all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars
[Guitar Solo]
[Interlude]
We practice selective annihilation
Of mayors and government officials
For example, to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer
[Chorus]
I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor
You’re power-hungry, sellin’ soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh? I don’t need your civil war
No no no no no no no no no no no no
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
You’re power-hungry, sellin’ soldiers in a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh? I don’t need your civil war
No no no no no no no no no no, no, no
I don’t need one more war
Ooh, I don’t need one more war
No no no, no woah, no woah
[Outro]
What’s so civil ’bout war anyway?
https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-civil-war-lyrics
Civil War by Guns N’ Roses (Duff McKagan, Slash, and Axl Rose)
