Feb 052024
I like John Denver’s music. Surprisingly, I first heard this song in 2024 February.
John Denver and Alexander Gradsky sing it near the end of “Christmas in Aspen, 1988”.
John told how he had gone to the Soviet Union, . . . sat with Gradsky and a bottle of vodka singing Beatle songs until 4AM. It was the only English that Gradsky knew. The two became good friends. Gradsky came to Aspen to perform “What are we making weapons for? with John in the Christmas special .
Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)
Song by John Denver
Lyrics
I am the son of a grassland farmerWestern Oklahoma nineteen forty threeI always felt grateful to live in the land of the freeI gave up my father to South KoreaThe mind of my brother to VietnamNow there’s a banker who says I must give up my landThere are four generations of blood in this topsoilFour generations of love on this farmBefore I give up I would gladly give up my right arm
What are we making weapons forWhy keep on feeding the war machineWe take it right out of the mouths of our babiesTake it away from the hands of the poorTell me, what are we making weapons for
I had a son and my son was a soldierHe was so like my father, he was so much like meTo be a good comrade was the best that he dreamed he could beHe gave up his future to revolutionHis life to a battle that just can’t be wonFor this is not living, to live at the point of a gunI remember the nine hundred days of LeningradThe sound of the dying, the cut of the coldI remember the moments I prayed I would never grow old
What are we making weapons forWhy keep on feeding the war machineWe take it right out of the mouths of our babiesTake it away from the hands of the poorTell me, what are we making weapons for
For the first time in my life I feel like a prisonerA slave to the ways of the powers that beAnd I fear for my children, as I fear for the for the future I seeTell me how can it be we’re still fighting each otherWhat does it take for a people to learnIf our song is not sung as a chorus, we surely will burn
What are we making weapons forWhy keep on feeding the war machineWe take it right out of the mouths of our babiesTake it away from the hands of the poorTell me, what are we making weapons for
Have we forgottenAll the lives that were givenAll the vows that were takenSaying never againNow for the first timeThis could be the last timeIf peace is our visionLet us begin
Have we forgottenAll the lives that were givenAll the vows that were takenSaying never again, never againNow for the first timeThis could be the last timeIf peace is our vision
Let us begin, let us begin