4 Incredible Anti-War Songs That Required a Bit of “Reading Between the Lines”

Not every great protest song is in your face or direct about its message. Some songwriters take a more poetic approach to singing anti-war songs. Let’s take a look at four tracks that are very much anti-war tunes, but require a bit of reading between the lines to understand.

1. “Rooster” by Alice In Chains

You might know this song as a great grunge hit from Alice In Chains in 1992. With some serious fuzz and an excellent melody, it might be easy to glaze over exactly what the lyrics say. Jerry Cantrell actually packed a pretty substantial message into this song.

Cantrell’s own father was a Vietnam War veteran, and he spent much of his childhood experiencing the results of his father’s trauma. “Rooster” was written as a way for Cantrell to try and understand his father’s perspective and pain, all while sympathizing with the horrors he went through in the war. It’s a dark, haunting, and incredibly beautiful song.

2. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band

Anti-war songs come and go, but few have been as… controversial as this tune from The Band. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is sung from the perspective of the Confederacy during the perils of the Civil War. 

However, this song is as far from sympathetic to Confederate soldiers. Rather, the song focuses on the average man caught up in a battle they had no choice but to fight in. War, in all its forms, is a futile thing. Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm tell the story beautifully as if it were a poetic history lesson.

3. “Children Of The Grave” by Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath is pretty well-known for their protest songs, such as “Warpigs”. That being said, “Children Of The Grave” is very much an anti-war song that occasionally gets overlooked. 

In a very sick and brutal way, Geezer Butler tells a tale that is rooted in truth in this song: War is basically just a group of angry children on their way to die. It’s heavy and dark, but there are hopeful moments in the song as well. Ozzy singing “Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave” is pretty unexpected but very real.

4. “Orange Crush” by R.E.M.

Anti-war songs rarely get as indirect as this. After all, R.E.M. is not the kind of band to take a direct approach to songwriting. “Orange Crush” is a reference to napalm, and the whole of the song is a chaotic mix of disorienting vocals and references to war. 

If you really weren’t listening, you might have missed the core theme of the song. But listening to this song with attentive ears might yield some shocking results.

Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage

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