If I Had A Rocket Launcher (Bruce Cockburn)

from The Middle Ages, Vol III by Tyler Shipley

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about

Bruce Cockburn's legacy is a little mixed. He wrote some fabulous protest songs in the 80s but he got mixed up in a kind of mainstream Canadiana that fully resolved itself in Bruce's performing for Canadian troops in their imperial war in Afghanistan. But that doesn't make If I Had a Rocket Launcher any less riveting; it is still a perfect articulation of anger at the outrageous violence the United States and its allies brought to Central America. I'm just glad Bruce doesn't have a rocket launcher today.

lyrics

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 I'd make somebody pay. I don't believe in guarded border, I don't believe in hate. I don't believe in generals or their torture states. And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate. If I had a rocket launcher I would retaliate. On the Rio Lacantun one hundred thousand 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 I would not hesitate. I want to raise every voice, at least I gotta try. Every time I think about it, water rises to my eyes. Situation desperate, echoes of the victim's cry. If I had a rocket launcher some son of a bitch would die.

By Bruce Cockburn

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from The Middle Ages, Vol III, released September 3, 2017
Written by Bruce Cockburn

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Tyler Shipley Toronto, Ontario

Tyler Shipley was the founding member of the Consumer Goods (theconsumergoods.bandcamp.com) and now performs as a solo artist.

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