I’d never heard the song (58 year old Australian). I’m giving it a listen due to Daniel Maté’s recommendation on the Bad Hasbara podcast. Great tune and the sentiment unfortunately remains timely.
I hear you can easily buy one in Africa now thanks to Western countries handing them out lately like lollipops to children in a certain corrupt Eastern European country.
That’s merely because they couldn’t get radio air play if the music included any profanity back when radio play determined what was successful and what wasn’t.
I typed rocket launcher and definitely did not expect this. Almost made fun of his name but the song convinced me otherwise. Salute to a legend of a human 🙏
@@ladybabbleon oh dang I thought you meant this positively, this would be great as an antifa theme song. more american iron front though, they're more peaceful.
@@ladybabbleon Absolutely false, for a fact. I love how everyone holds onto that one bike lock incident so much because it's the only thing they've got. 2% of extremist deaths in America are due to any kind of left wing extremists, with the vast majority being right wing (ADL). Antifa violence against the innocent is mostly a strawman argument used by the likes of Steven Crowder to create a false equivalent to the far-right extremists which can be found across the country.
The sadness, pain and anger of this song is always balanced for me by listening next to “Wondering Where the Lions Are?” The man is a giant to those of us who listen.
Greatest musician and songwriter of my lifetime. Started with Going To The Country. Extraordinary sole and human being who is needed more than even in these uncertain times.
Plenty of countries have them, maybe they should start using them, maybe it would make all the bad stop. Maybe if people stopped being bad nobody would need a rocket launcher. Maybe.....
The specific subject matter of this song is about the Guatemalan war against "terrorists" in the 80s, where so many civilians were killed with impunity by both sides. More so by the army as they were the ones with the helicopters and guns. But it could apply to any regime of what Roger Waters referred to as the "anonymous Latin-American meat-packing glitterati" including El Salvador and communist Nicaragua around the same time period. Whether they hailed from the left or the right they were all "stinking torture states" that killed defenseless civilians like they were cattle. And while he doesn't directly reference the USA in the song, it's indisputable that my country under Reagan's looney crusade against "evil empires" had a hand in all of it and helped drive the killing by providing guns and money to one side or the other. If you want to hear something more optimistic, I recommend Bruce Cockburn's song "Maybe the Poet" for a great statement of why murderous dictators usually fail sooner or later.
@@patrickscalia5088Truly it is disgusting to learn just how many conflicts throughout the rest of the world were either instigated by, or at least partially funded by the US. It's probably the most disgusting realization to come to terms with as an American. We aren't taught about these things very often (a scary amount of Americans think we "won" the Vietnam war) and it makes sense, because learning about our government's previous and continued manipulation of geopolitics, regardless of how many innocent people die as a consequence, is both saddening and infuriating.
This is why I like the internet. I heard this song ONE TIME way back when it was new. I have thought about it from time to time since then, so I looked it up and... found it!
Thank you for YOUR service, commitment, and sacrifice! My oldest son is a paramedic, and I'm quite proud of him for choosing that career. God Bless all of you in the rescue, first-responder, and firefighting professions.
@@garymccoy1366 That's just being a decent human being, considering what the song is about. But this song's subject matter is generally something that appeals to people on the left and annoys people on the right. Generally.
@@Polypeckerhead Bruce Cockburn is 100% Canadian, thus this song was not "from the States." It was released in both Canada and the U.S., as is the case with a great many Canadian recording artists, but this song got much more airplay and attention in Canada because of how much Canadians hate war. (Canadians truly are a peace-loving people for the most part.)
@@shawnwright5332 They wave their flags and scream democracy until they see us bleed to death All under the guise of humanitarian cause to destabilize and loot the whole world... Feel the breeze Before bullets left their place Not recognizing a face When the parched dunes of the Somali desert had mercy On one pair of lungs When bodies would rust And death was a must We saw many wars, many wars It here in the urban tenements of the North American tundra that we got resettled and became acquainted with the symbol of peace Believing in the day that all children would see their place ✌from🇨🇦 by way of🇸🇴
It's pretentious soy-boy pap. Also, the world doesn't need anymore middle-class, pampered, saviors. Your whiteness makes you no hero and no one needs your help
"I don't believe in hate!" Showed this tune and video to a Vietnam vet friend of mine 15 years ago. A man I had never seen cry was weeping and shared horrific memories with me. I believe Bruce would dedicate this tune to war veterans.
@@andreasvedeler80 Many of the American soldiers in Vietnam were drafted as soon as they turned 18 or 19. Not all of them figured out how to avoid the draft. Even those who volunteered often weren't prepared for the reality that war so often inflicts the most suffering on civilians. People generally lose morale when they see that it is mainly "enemy" noncombatants who suffer and die. I don't know whether Cockburn dedicated this song to American veterans of Vietnam, but I do know it is a cautionary song against hate and war. I think it's message is that hate only breeds more hate.
If you want to hear what Bruce Cockburn himself says about the song, as well as read the lyrics, go to The Bruce Cockburn Project; it has some great quotes and research. "When I wrote the song," Cockburn stated,"it was an expression of those feelings, but I didn’t want to incite people to go down there and kill Guatemalan soldiers…"-- Cleveland Free Times, 2001. And in a March 2002 interview in the Edmonton Sun, Cockburn commented on NOT playing “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” around 9/11/2002: "I think it's the wrong emotional climate, especially in the U.S. right now. People will hear it the wrong way, and I don't want to run the risk of feeding a body of emotion that I don't want to trip up." Later, he says: "I'm not a pacifist. You don't have to be a pacifist to think peace is better than war. There's just a best way to go about things." He’s a complicated man, and it’s a complicated song. I personally read it as, this is how you feel when you see human beings hurt so badly-you want to defend them. It’s very, very easy to tip into violence from a place of compassion. And the ethics are not simple at all. With Love, Namaste, Pam
Bruce was my poetic guiding light in the late 1970s. He reflected a wonderful joy of having an intelligent faith. He embraced Christianity, and spun lyrical webs worthy of Joni. I could put Bruce Cockburn on, and realize you can believe in God and also have a brain. He didn't have to put on rose colored glasses to dampen his powers of observation just because he is a Christian. At the close of the 1970s, his albums Dancing in the Dragon's Jaw and Humans seldom left my turntable for long. But then, we mirrored each other's paths in ways that clouded our bright skies. In 1981, I discovered what America was doing in El Salvador, and Bruce, my celestial poet-of-the-heart, went to Nicaragua. When Bruce returned, he wrote an angry song, a challenge to his innate pacifism. Having witnessed American-sponsored torture and terrorism first hand, he sang, "If I had a rocket launcher / some son of a bitch would die." And me, I was out collecting Hollywood donations for health clinics in rural El Salvador. No more sunny smiles. We'd both grown up.
A staple, on Cleveland's WMMS, back in the day. We all used to sing "Some Sonofbitch would die" really loud. It was very controversial when it came out. Especially for a group of 8th graders, at St Christines Catholic School JT
Love the way he ended the video. I am from Chile. Probably just like him, very time that I hear a helicopter just like the ending of the video, I always look back
This song got a lot more attention in Bruce's home country of Canada than in the U.S. because most Canadians hate war. This song really brought home the reality of what was going on in Central America at the time.
Civil rights activism, not social justice, dude. Social justice is an oxymoron that means injustice is better than justice that was created by an Italian socialist and communist.
His relevant political commentary and predictions of around 30 years ago notwithstanding, Bruce is one HELL of a musician! Not bad as a songwriter/composer, too!
I searched for this powerful song again after reading Nikki Haley's quoted "Just 5 months into our time here, we've cut over half a billion $$$ from the UN peacekeeping budget & we’re only getting started." Truly powerful expression of how one feels when the ones' who hold power victimize those without.
I thought of this song this morning as I listen to fresh accounts of the death and suffering being inflicted on Ukraine by Putin and his cronies and military machine. It's as relevant a song now as it was when I first heard it early in my college years in the mid 1980s when my friends and I were concerned about people in El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc. I heard then that Cockburn was a pacifist, but he was so upset by what was going on in Central America that he wrote thus song about his feelings. I'm sharing this song on my Facebook for today to encourage my Facebook friends to send money and relief supplies to Ukraine. At least in this fresh atrocity among the many it appears that relief supplies actually are getting to Ukrainians whi have been able to flee - and to Ukrainian soldiers according to the news I am getting as of this morning, Friday, March 11, 2022.
Thank You. My relatives are fighting and some dying for their freedom and their country and family in Ukraine. I pray it will stop soon. Slava Ukraini.
This song was not written for the gullible pawns of Imperialism .It is a celebration of destroying american military for their unending war on the people of the world
Without making any commentary or opinion on this fine song, i ask myself how, how do we still conclude that the best way to fight fire is with fire? The ever so obvious better solution is the one we choose to ignore every single time. At some point, God knows when, we will abandon our precious right to act stupidly. Oh, what a great day that will be.
I heard this song for the first time on an Instagram post comparing the situation with the Palestinians' plight and fell in love with it. Disgustingly, the Israeli government also funded the Guatemalan fascist government's genocide that is referred to in Bruce's song.
More recently, Stone in my hand by Everlast speaks to this in my heart, but when Reagan funded juntas were murdering 1,000's in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Salvador... THIS song spoke truth!
I remember hearing this yesrs ago while me and my pop where listening to old song on his pc, he fell asleep and this came on, and it felt like I was in a whole different world, I love this song and I always will, I want this played at my funeral.
I thought that this song would have had millions of views by now. Incredible song! Deep meaning. Then again, the American government banned this song. Great Canadian song!
My Man! !!... Bruce Cockburn! !! One of the few first Canadian activist-artist of the 80's! !! (I discovered him back when I was in grade school with; "If a tree falls"... in the forest... back in the mid 80's 😄) He stood up (as he still does) for The People, Animals and Mother Earth by calling out the government, corporations, and the 1% that don't give a shit about any of us and our surroundings... They make our lives hell... all in the name of Power and Profit... These type of songs should be in our anthem playlist... it reflects the here and now... even tho most of the most accurate ones were written in the 60.s, 70"s and 80's .... Scary and discouraging that the topics still fit 30-40 years down the road.... sigh... WHERE'S THE PROGRESS?!....
Pam Cote Thank you for finding the words; I was just thinking that. It's so frustrating! I'm not sure if the water in my eyes is from sadness or anger.
Sadly war is still so profitable that the people at the top do anything they can to keep it going. One day, we'll rise up together and say, "Enough is enough". Nobody's investment in war is more important than the human right to peace
"If I Had A Rocket Launcher" Here comes the helicopter Second time today Everybody scatters And hopes it goes away How many kids they've murdered Only God can say If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I'd make somebody pay I don't believe in guarded borders And I don't believe in hate I don't believe in generals Or their stinking torture states And when I talk with the survivors Of things too sickening to relate If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I would retaliate On the Rio Lacantun 100,000 wait To fall down from starvation Or some less humane fate Cry for Guatemala With a corpse in every gate If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher I would not hesitate I want to raise every voice At least I've got to try Every time I think about it Water rises to my eyes Situation desperate Echoes of the victims' cry If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher If I had a rocket launcher Some son of a bitch would die
I met him & his wife, after a show once, me a Canadian-Am, too, & gave them my whale-tail, sterling charm, on its sterling necklace box-chain, b/c, GREAT Musician, & band of same, who gave me so much, in this life. Yay, ey... ? (Many, many, 'wars,' are waged upon the innocent, UNSEEN... :( But, excellence: THIS GUY... ☺️🤩💜💖💝💜💫✨
Today I'm trolling U-Tube for music and after tumbling down some stupid direction listening to someones "top 10" I've come back (as I always do) to listening to something that requires a "higher than room temperature IQ" I like absolutely everything this Man does.
+Mark8395217 Bruce never wastes a note or a word. I too absolutely love everything he does. Nice to have a musician that it takes a brain to understand. No pop pablum out of Bruce as all!
I mean, this song is an indictment of the American govt's support of right-wing death squads in South America, AND it includes the line "I don't believe in guarded borders," so ... not exactly "beyond comprehension" that it didn't get a lot of exposure in the US.
My relatives are fighting and some dying in Ukraine today. I hope they will be remembered. I helped get 2 mothers and 6 children to Poland but I want them to be able to go home.
@@wolfbear7 dead and forgotten like all victims of war. They fight for their state's claim on land as do the Russians. So long as states exist to claim land and people as their own, there will be endless and pointless wars fought over dirt.
Oh, how I wish this song would go stale and out of date. But, alas. Here we are again. And I find myself drawn here, to this song, to help me to lament. Lord, haste the day, when swords shall beat into plowshares.
An amazing video, Thank You for sharing it. I remember the song from when it was popular, but only just became aware of the video recently. Thanks again, what a great song...
Was listening to this in 1984 and now in 2024. Successive US administrations ensure that Cockburn's lyrics are ever timely.
My thought too
#freePalestine
I’d never heard the song (58 year old Australian). I’m giving it a listen due to Daniel Maté’s recommendation on the Bad Hasbara podcast.
Great tune and the sentiment unfortunately remains timely.
I wish I could say things have changed since this song's release. We still need a rocket launcher.
Ha ha, understandable perspective...and there is a higher technology....(even beyond Yogananda's Divine Boomerang)
I hear you can easily buy one in Africa now thanks to Western countries handing them out lately like lollipops to children in a certain corrupt Eastern European country.
That’s exactly what we don’t need.
We need John Lennon’s world in Imagine.
Agreed, but what we need and what we can get are not always the same thing @@SpiroFleecy
The Government would ban them!
I love how he says "some son of a bitch would die". Swearing was rare in mainstream songs in the 80s.
Especially when you remember that Bruce was an Evangelical, selling his music on the Christian charts.
Dire straits "money for nothing" used the epithet for gay man in theirs and it was a huge hit back then to.
That’s merely because they couldn’t get radio air play if the music included any profanity back when radio play determined what was successful and what wasn’t.
@@ShikataGaNai100, he “was.” He couldn’t be anymore without bowing down before Trump.
Yes government trying to take away our rights Imagine
George
Washington had a rocket launcher some son of a would die
I typed rocket launcher and definitely did not expect this. Almost made fun of his name but the song convinced me otherwise. Salute to a legend of a human 🙏
🤘🤠👍
He inspire Tupac as well
I feel he and this song are severly underrated. Have always loved him
Was one of my dads last concerts he went to in Chicago before he died of cancer back in 04. Always reminds me of him.
MTV used to play this video back in the mid 80s!! To think that MTV was musically and politically relevant at one time is mind bending.
This should be the antifa theme song. I don't believe in hate but if I had a rocket launcher I'd make them pay! Lololololol! Way to not hate!
@@ladybabbleon oh dang I thought you meant this positively, this would be great as an antifa theme song. more american iron front though, they're more peaceful.
@@spaceman-pe5je Antifa most likely hates American Iron Front. If it doesn't involve braining the elderly with bike locks, they can't get behind it.
@@ladybabbleon Absolutely false, for a fact. I love how everyone holds onto that one bike lock incident so much because it's the only thing they've got. 2% of extremist deaths in America are due to any kind of left wing extremists, with the vast majority being right wing (ADL). Antifa violence against the innocent is mostly a strawman argument used by the likes of Steven Crowder to create a false equivalent to the far-right extremists which can be found across the country.
@@spaceman-pe5je 👍
The sadness, pain and anger of this song is always balanced
for me by listening next to “Wondering Where the Lions Are?” The man is a giant to those of us who listen.
Saw him live at John Hopkins University. Brought a friend who was a musician never heard of Bruce. He came out smiling ear to ear!
The lions are rising. They are being awoken now. We will fight.
Greatest musician and songwriter of my lifetime. Started with Going To The Country. Extraordinary sole and human being who is needed more than even in these uncertain times.
I used to make fun of this guy in the 80's before I really knew anything about the world we live in, but now I realize, he knew reality.
***** He also knew.
danzig159 Ain't that the truth.
Plenty of countries have them, maybe they should start using them, maybe it would make all the bad stop. Maybe if people stopped being bad nobody would need a rocket launcher. Maybe.....
No - DANZIG thinks this guy knows????? sites.google.com/site/targetedstalkedterrorized/home/the-tactics-used
Mytube777 Mutually assured destruction is a double edged sword.
Cockburn stated that the song "is not a call to arms; this is a cry."
Yes
It's a song.
I’m todays World, it’s a cry for war in order to take our country back.
One talented Canuck. Very underappreciated imo.
Bloody genius
I was in El Salvador in the 80’s and this is how I felt seeing with my own eyes what my country did to the poorest of the world.
Must be cool to hear a song from a perspective that was once your own, though it pains me to hear it was one with such a depressing story.
Is that the country Bruce is referring to here?
@@42awww most likely it reefers to the Central American triangle as a whole.
The specific subject matter of this song is about the Guatemalan war against "terrorists" in the 80s, where so many civilians were killed with impunity by both sides. More so by the army as they were the ones with the helicopters and guns. But it could apply to any regime of what Roger Waters referred to as the "anonymous Latin-American meat-packing glitterati" including El Salvador and communist Nicaragua around the same time period. Whether they hailed from the left or the right they were all "stinking torture states" that killed defenseless civilians like they were cattle. And while he doesn't directly reference the USA in the song, it's indisputable that my country under Reagan's looney crusade against "evil empires" had a hand in all of it and helped drive the killing by providing guns and money to one side or the other.
If you want to hear something more optimistic, I recommend Bruce Cockburn's song "Maybe the Poet" for a great statement of why murderous dictators usually fail sooner or later.
@@patrickscalia5088Truly it is disgusting to learn just how many conflicts throughout the rest of the world were either instigated by, or at least partially funded by the US. It's probably the most disgusting realization to come to terms with as an American. We aren't taught about these things very often (a scary amount of Americans think we "won" the Vietnam war) and it makes sense, because learning about our government's previous and continued manipulation of geopolitics, regardless of how many innocent people die as a consequence, is both saddening and infuriating.
I has this cassette back in the 80s, played it so much, had to replace it several times. I still think of this song now and then. More often now. . .
Man, I was singing this song last Wed night down on interstate 78 in PA with all the f'n trucks blocking the lanes. BLAMMMMO!
You should have saved it for the upcoming civil war.
Just got turned onto to him the other day on a trip and I love the sound. Will be listening to more of him
This is why I like the internet. I heard this song ONE TIME way back when it was new. I have thought about it from time to time since then, so I looked it up and... found it!
I saw him do it live in Denver 3rd row small old music hall. Changed my life. 1984.
Hey Bob Jones...I did the same thing...heard it when it was radio back in the day and recently found this :)
Beautiful song and socially conscious lyrics. Bruce Cockburn was and still is a class act
Bruce, I hope you're writing some new shit. We need it man.
Lee Down he is. Check out his website. It's in the works.
I got a chance to see Bruce Cockburn in concert twice in the 80s. One of the best musicians and song writers I've ever been privileged to see perform.
I'm 21 and this touches my soul.
Boxer Dogs1515
Then you should use that young heart to do some good in thos world.
That stuff is still happening.
You can help change the future! 😃👍
Boogie Boogs I'm
a firefighter doing what I love.
Thank you for YOUR service, commitment, and sacrifice! My oldest son is a paramedic, and I'm quite proud of him for choosing that career. God Bless all of you in the rescue, first-responder, and firefighting professions.
You're 27 now. How's life?
No way this would be allowed to debut on the radio today. The world has made a sharp right turn since this song came out in 1984.
Yeah they're too busy playing trash like WAP... hard times
they just play what sells, so ultimately it's up to us, the consumer, to pressure radio stations to play music like this
To me this song isn't right or left. I consider myself right and I completely identify and agree with this song.
@@garymccoy1366 That's just being a decent human being, considering what the song is about. But this song's subject matter is generally something that appeals to people on the left and annoys people on the right. Generally.
a right turn? Progs are in charge now.
Seen Bruce many times. A true artist-activist. His work is about bigger things than people's petty day-today neurosis
And our "first world problems".
Why is this still so relevant nearly 40 years later? Protection and Peace for the people of Afghanistan.
Peaked at just No. 88 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1985. Should’ve been a much bigger hit. Great song.
He was (and still is) speaking about things that most people don't want to think about.
I may repost this video on my wall on Veterans Day...
It was too much for enough people it seems.
@@Polypeckerhead Bruce Cockburn is 100% Canadian, thus this song was not "from the States." It was released in both Canada and the U.S., as is the case with a great many Canadian recording artists, but this song got much more airplay and attention in Canada because of how much Canadians hate war. (Canadians truly are a peace-loving people for the most part.)
just today...
one of the best songs ever written
This song radicalized me, and it still rings true in so many other parts of the world.
Big time👍🇨🇦
@@shawnwright5332 They wave their flags and scream democracy until they see us bleed to death
All under the guise of humanitarian cause to destabilize and loot the whole world...
Feel the breeze
Before bullets left their place
Not recognizing a face
When the parched dunes of the Somali desert had mercy
On one pair of lungs
When bodies would rust
And death was a must
We saw many wars, many wars
It here in the urban tenements of the North American tundra that we got resettled and became acquainted with the symbol of peace
Believing in the day that all children would see their place
✌from🇨🇦 by way of🇸🇴
@@hdoubleye81 listen to his song and they call it democracy that's my reply cheers hdoubleye81
It's pretentious soy-boy pap. Also, the world doesn't need anymore middle-class, pampered, saviors. Your whiteness makes you no hero and no one needs your help
Did you get a rocket launcher? Wanna buy one?
No one wants to admit the truth...music helps awaken our conscience... if we listen. Thank you Bruce for your many years of hard work.
"I don't believe in hate!" Showed this tune and video to a Vietnam vet friend of mine 15 years ago. A man I had never seen cry was weeping and shared horrific memories with me. I believe Bruce would dedicate this tune to war veterans.
Why would he dedicate this song to imperialist child killers? That doesn't make sense
War veterans of ALL countries...not just the USA.
@@kurttoogs1378 Yes, the Wehrmacht veterans too
@@andreasvedeler80 Every War is a Bankers War, we get our loved ones back in body bags, the so-called 'elites' get the booty!
@@andreasvedeler80 Many of the American soldiers in Vietnam were drafted as soon as they turned 18 or 19. Not all of them figured out how to avoid the draft. Even those who volunteered often weren't prepared for the reality that war so often inflicts the most suffering on civilians. People generally lose morale when they see that it is mainly "enemy" noncombatants who suffer and die. I don't know whether Cockburn dedicated this song to American veterans of Vietnam, but I do know it is a cautionary song against hate and war. I think it's message is that hate only breeds more hate.
In a fucked world, this song, and in general the social commentary provided by singer/songwriters, is incredibly necessary.
If you want to hear what Bruce Cockburn himself says about the song, as well as read the lyrics, go to The Bruce Cockburn Project; it has some great quotes and research. "When I wrote the song," Cockburn stated,"it was an expression of those feelings, but I didn’t want to incite people to go down there and kill Guatemalan soldiers…"-- Cleveland Free Times, 2001.
And in a March 2002 interview in the Edmonton Sun, Cockburn commented on NOT playing “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” around 9/11/2002: "I think it's the wrong emotional climate, especially in the U.S. right now. People will hear it the wrong way, and I don't want to run the risk of feeding a body of emotion that I don't want to trip up." Later, he says: "I'm not a pacifist. You don't have to be a pacifist to think peace is better than war. There's just a best way to go about things."
He’s a complicated man, and it’s a complicated song. I personally read it as, this is how you feel when you see human beings hurt so badly-you want to defend them. It’s very, very easy to tip into violence from a place of compassion. And the ethics are not simple at all. With Love, Namaste, Pam
Devastating. I heard this in college in the'80's, and boy, did it affect me!
This guy can play! I can see who is fueling his "soulful" playing. It is clearly God!
WANT TO KNOW WHAT A MUSICAL GENIUS LOOKS AND SOUNDS LIKE?...WELL, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN this MAN!!!!
Big time👍🇨🇦
With a lyrics like: "if i had a rocket launcher, some sonofabitch would die" Its like the gansta rap of folk music.
Happy 77th Birthday Bruce!! 🎂🎉❤️
Bruce was my poetic guiding light in the late 1970s. He reflected a wonderful joy of having an intelligent faith. He embraced Christianity, and spun lyrical webs worthy of Joni. I could put Bruce Cockburn on, and realize you can believe in God and also have a brain. He didn't have to put on rose colored glasses to dampen his powers of observation just because he is a Christian. At the close of the 1970s, his albums Dancing in the Dragon's Jaw and Humans seldom left my turntable for long. But then, we mirrored each other's paths in ways that clouded our bright skies. In 1981, I discovered what America was doing in El Salvador, and Bruce, my celestial poet-of-the-heart, went to Nicaragua.
When Bruce returned, he wrote an angry song, a challenge to his innate pacifism. Having witnessed American-sponsored torture and terrorism first hand, he sang, "If I had a rocket launcher / some son of a bitch would die." And me, I was out collecting Hollywood donations for health clinics in rural El Salvador. No more sunny smiles. We'd both grown up.
Our Canadian great talent. We love you Bruce!
This is one of the most passionate, meaningful songs ever written.
Certainly one of the best protest songs ever. Protest songs? asks the younger generation, "what the hell does THAT mean?"
I heard this on the radio , for the first time , in 1994 . The D.J. said his name was Bruce Coburn . I will never forget the song , It really is heavy
--- I heard this once when it first came out back in the 80's and never forgot it. it's better than I recall --- 24MAR21
I listen to this song a lot lately
A staple, on Cleveland's WMMS, back in the day. We all used to sing "Some Sonofbitch would die" really loud. It was very controversial when it came out. Especially for a group of 8th graders, at St Christines Catholic School
JT
you go Jake!
I was introduced to Bruce Cockburn's music in the 80's while in college. I still enjoy his music!
Love the way he ended the video. I am from Chile. Probably just like him, very time that I hear a helicopter just like the ending of the video, I always look back
This song got a lot more attention in Bruce's home country of Canada than in the U.S. because most Canadians hate war. This song really brought home the reality of what was going on in Central America at the time.
I saw him at Toronto's Maasey Hall, and he sounds as fantastic live,as his album. Simply outstanding!
I will never get tired of this song. Such a classic.
Your music made me aware of how things were..sadly....powerful! Meaningfull!!! Love to you
Powerful writing great guitar work
A very well written and well produced song. And the lyrics are a gut shot to any human conscience! He is very talented.
Not really lol
If there was ever a voice end song for unjustified War this man accomplished it ✌🙏
One of the great Social Justice songs of all time!
Bravo, Bruce
Civil rights activism, not social justice, dude. Social justice is an oxymoron that means injustice is better than justice that was created by an Italian socialist and communist.
@@bigguys45s29 "Social Justice" an oxymoron? Perhaps you should look up the definition in any Dictionary. Dude. 🤣
@@michaelsidkyphd Social justice is an oxymoron. You haven’t heard of the insult term, “Social Justice Warrior” at all?
This, and Jacksin Browne's version of Li'l Steven's "I am a Patriot."
This Canuck is outta control! ❤
This song introduced me to Bruce Cockburn, I have been a great fan ever since. I love to sit and share a beer with him one day.
This song was on canadian tv every day in early 80s !!
His relevant political commentary and predictions of around 30 years ago notwithstanding, Bruce is one HELL of a musician! Not bad as a songwriter/composer, too!
I searched for this powerful song again after reading Nikki Haley's quoted "Just 5 months into our time here, we've cut over half a billion $$$ from the UN peacekeeping budget & we’re only getting started." Truly powerful expression of how one feels when the ones' who hold power victimize those without.
You are so refreshing Bruce, now more than ever.
we need great music with meaning and honor
Classic song from an equally classic album - One of my favorite albums of all time.
An amazingly talented Canadian artist ❤...... Music with an 🇨🇦🎶 important message....🚀
A real American and a hero,
This guy is a legend with this song ,
Am 72 and i heard his song when I was 17
a real canadian hero, eh!!
He's CANADIAN.
I heard him play this at an outdoor concert. Back when songs had meaning.
One of the best guitar players ever
Lmao...one of the best ever...um NO.
Eddie Van Halen thought so
@@edwardduffy4879
Really. I saw him live and he was brilliant. As a guitarist myself I realised how good he was. Thanks for reply Edward 👍
@@warrengauthier4699 should be one of the best acoustic players... in the top 5 finger pickers of all time.
@@SpotWorksLNC : Please tell me you are Canadian otherwise I do not understand your comment. You are cheering on one of your people right?
Easily the best song ever written.
Who’s watching this during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022?
still watching in 2024
This song will never not be relevant and I hate it.
I thought of this song this morning as I listen to fresh accounts of the death and suffering being inflicted on Ukraine by Putin and his cronies and military machine. It's as relevant a song now as it was when I first heard it early in my college years in the mid 1980s when my friends and I were concerned about people in El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc. I heard then that Cockburn was a pacifist, but he was so upset by what was going on in Central America that he wrote thus song about his feelings. I'm sharing this song on my Facebook for today to encourage my Facebook friends to send money and relief supplies to Ukraine. At least in this fresh atrocity among the many it appears that relief supplies actually are getting to Ukrainians whi have been able to flee - and to Ukrainian soldiers according to the news I am getting as of this morning, Friday, March 11, 2022.
Thank You. My relatives are fighting and some dying for their freedom and their country and family in Ukraine. I pray it will stop soon. Slava Ukraini.
@@wolfbear7 Your relatives are fighting to support a fascist government .Ukraine has been betrayed by the nazis but vengeance is coming
This song was not written for the gullible pawns of Imperialism .It is a celebration of destroying american military for their unending war on the people of the world
2022, and I fully appreciate this song!
30 years as a guitarist and never even heard of this gem before. Bravo!
Indeed, there is some mighty fine picking here!
Without making any commentary or opinion on this fine song, i ask myself how, how do we still conclude that the best way to fight fire is with fire?
The ever so obvious better solution is the one we choose to ignore every single time. At some point, God knows when, we will abandon our precious right to act stupidly. Oh, what a great day that will be.
I heard this song for the first time on an Instagram post comparing the situation with the Palestinians' plight and fell in love with it. Disgustingly, the Israeli government also funded the Guatemalan fascist government's genocide that is referred to in Bruce's song.
He is also a hero in my eyes!
More recently, Stone in my hand by Everlast speaks to this in my heart, but when Reagan funded juntas were murdering 1,000's in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Salvador... THIS song spoke truth!
I remember hearing this yesrs ago while me and my pop where listening to old song on his pc, he fell asleep and this came on, and it felt like I was in a whole different world, I love this song and I always will, I want this played at my funeral.
I never knew how powerful this song is ... I was little too unaware back in the 80's
What an appropriate song and statement for now ☹️☹️☹️
Rare to hear music that sounds great and has a lot of meaning.
I never realized what this song meant in the 80s until watching the video now and songs words are timeless and relevant today
I thought that this song would have had millions of views by now. Incredible song! Deep meaning. Then again, the American government banned this song. Great Canadian song!
When Miami Vice played this song, I was very happy Bruce was recognized..
do you remember which show it was?
@@marimbadearco , no I don’t it was the episode when they were in Columbia and the opening scene was a guy being tortured
GREAT SONG
Hearing the news today.. let's hope we never hear it again 😊
My Man! !!...
Bruce Cockburn! !!
One of the few first Canadian activist-artist of the 80's! !!
(I discovered him back when I was in grade school with; "If a tree falls"... in the forest... back in the mid 80's 😄)
He stood up (as he still does) for The People, Animals and Mother Earth by calling out the government, corporations, and the 1% that don't give a shit about any of us and our surroundings... They make our lives hell... all in the name of Power and Profit...
These type of songs should be in our anthem playlist... it reflects the here and now... even tho most of the most accurate ones were written in the 60.s, 70"s and 80's .... Scary and discouraging that the topics still fit 30-40 years down the road.... sigh...
WHERE'S THE PROGRESS?!....
Pam Cote
Thank you for finding the words; I was just thinking that.
It's so frustrating!
I'm not sure if the water in my eyes is from sadness or anger.
Sadly war is still so profitable that the people at the top do anything they can to keep it going. One day, we'll rise up together and say, "Enough is enough". Nobody's investment in war is more important than the human right to peace
I'm going to see Bruce in concert tonight; this song came to mind, considering what's going on in Ukraine...😣
Don’t worry my friend, Ukraine has rocket launcher
Ukraine being duped into becoming a client state. This is about people oppressed by imperial powers that backed theses authoritarian regimes.
"If I Had A Rocket Launcher"
Here comes the helicopter
Second time today
Everybody scatters
And hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered
Only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd make somebody pay
I don't believe in guarded borders
And I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals
Or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors
Of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would retaliate
On the Rio Lacantun
100,000 wait
To fall down from starvation
Or some less humane fate
Cry for Guatemala
With a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would not hesitate
I want to raise every voice
At least I've got to try
Every time I think about it
Water rises to my eyes
Situation desperate
Echoes of the victims' cry
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
Some son of a bitch would die
I met him & his wife, after a show once, me a Canadian-Am, too, & gave them my whale-tail, sterling charm, on its sterling necklace box-chain, b/c, GREAT Musician, & band of same, who gave me so much, in this life. Yay, ey... ? (Many, many, 'wars,' are waged upon the innocent, UNSEEN... :(
But, excellence: THIS GUY... ☺️🤩💜💖💝💜💫✨
Still relevant
Today I'm trolling U-Tube for music and after tumbling down some stupid direction listening to someones "top 10" I've come back (as I always do) to listening to something that requires a "higher than room temperature IQ" I like absolutely everything this Man does.
+Mark8395217 Bruce never wastes a note or a word. I too absolutely love everything he does. Nice to have a musician that it takes a brain to understand. No pop pablum out of Bruce as all!
Mark8395217 the funny thing is that even this song and his whole "stealing fire" album is more of his commercial stuff
To be fair...
The emotions are still revevent!
This is a pretty cool song. This song is from the 1984 album "Stealing Fire".
One of my Daddy's favorite songs. RIH Daddy.
This along with Lovers In A Dangerous time could have easily been big hits in America. The fact that they weren't is beyond comprehension.
Kinda like your life.. ~
@@dizcret 🖕
The song's politics were not palatable to corporate media.
I mean, this song is an indictment of the American govt's support of right-wing death squads in South America, AND it includes the line "I don't believe in guarded borders," so ... not exactly "beyond comprehension" that it didn't get a lot of exposure in the US.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GREAT SONG AND A CLASSIC
Rip it up!!! Was excellent in i think 91 and stands tbe test of time. Bruce the socially conscious musician.
"The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins." -Soren Kierkegaard
My relatives are fighting and some dying in Ukraine today. I hope they will be remembered. I helped get 2 mothers and 6 children to Poland but I want them to be able to go home.
@@wolfbear7 dead and forgotten like all victims of war. They fight for their state's claim on land as do the Russians. So long as states exist to claim land and people as their own, there will be endless and pointless wars fought over dirt.
Oh, how I wish this song would go stale and out of date. But, alas. Here we are again. And I find myself drawn here, to this song, to help me to lament. Lord, haste the day, when swords shall beat into plowshares.
An amazing video, Thank You for sharing it. I remember the song from when it was popular, but only just became aware of the video recently. Thanks again, what a great song...