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"Civil War" is a Guns N' Roses song (written by Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan), originally appearing on the 1990 album "Nobody's Child", a fundraising compilation for Romanian orphans. It is a protest song about war, that amongst other things say that a civil war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor". Notably, the United States was involved in no major military operations at the time of it's recording, so it is mostly thought of as a tribute of sorts to 1960's anti-Vietnam protest songs.
It was the first track on Use Your Illusion II, appeared on the compilation Use Your Illusion, and on Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits.
The song also mentions John F. Kennedy's assassination with the lyrics: and in my first memories they shot Kennedy," as well as the battle for civil rights and the Vietnam war. The line "...they shot the man who said 'Peace could last forever'" refers to John Lennon of the British pop group The Beatles.
The song samples Strother Martin's speech in 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. I don't like it any more than you men.") and a Peruvian terrorist general speech ("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").
The song ends with the telling line, "What's so civil about war anyway?", a word play on the dual meaning of the word civil.
"Civil War" is the last song in which drummer Steven Adler played for Guns N' Roses before being replaced by Matt Sorum.
External links
"Civil War (song)"