John Allan: December 2025

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, uhh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y’all
War, huh (good God)
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me, oh

With the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and the Ukraine and the worlds largest warship, the USS Gerald R Ford, looming off the coast of Venezuela, it appears we have learned nothing since Edwin Starr’s hit from 1970.

I remember as a child in the sixties playing war games with my chums. The woods became the steamy jungles of the Far East or the beaches at Normandy. Sticks were Tommy guns as we lobbed air grenades at the ‘Japs’ or ‘the Hun’ accompanied by our own sound effects. One game was to run up an incline and dramatically fall clutching our chest as the enemy’s imaginary bullet hit it’s mark.

Guns as toys were very popular be it cap, pop, spud guns and water pistols. Boys had their own dolls. Action Man and GI Joe as well as the many small military figurines.

Why did we glorify war ? Why didn’t our parents try and stop us ? This was twenty years after the end of a major world war. A conflict that saw friends and relatives killed and a blitz on the neighbouring town, Clydebank. My mother had two uncles and an aunt interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Borneo. One didn’t make it out alive.

It wasn’t that the popular music at the time didn’t try to warn us.

The first anti-war song that I remember was “Where Have All The Flowers Gone ?” in 1962 by Peter, Paul & Mary. I thought it was about horticulture at the time. Written by Pete Seeger in 1955, inspired by a Cossack folk tune “Koloda-Duda”. The trio followed it up with Dylan’s “Blowing In The Wind”. Another anti-war anthem before going a bit hippy-dippy with “Puff The Magic Dragon”.

The American Civil War gets a nod in 1974 by Paper Lace “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” as well as Joan Baez’s version of The Band classic “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” earlier in the decade

Another tune I found quite confronting was Jethro Tull’s “War Child” from 1974 with it’s introduction of sirens, bombs and gunfire.

If I may stretch time to include 1980, “Army Dreamers” by Kate Bush took us to the Troubles in Northern Ireland with it’s folksy waltz like theme.

Which leads us to this time of year and John & Yoko’s 1971 iconic anthem “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” which still rings out to this day in shopping malls all around the globe from November to the year’s end.

There are probably a myriad of other anti-war songs I have overlooked so feel free to add your favourites. In the meantime have a happy and peaceful New Year