‘God only knows how much blood it will take’

I have, arbitrarily, been working my way through the Daniel Amos discography, song by song, mining the lyrics for the titles of the occasional short-links posts here. We’ve arrived at their 1991 album Kalhoun and this song, “Father Explains.”

(I think maybe Terry Taylor had been listening to “Rockin’ in the Free World” before he wrote this one.)

This is a 1991 song about American bombs falling on Iraq. The bombing did not stop with the end of the first Gulf War. It continued, steadily, for more than a decade, right on through to the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, starting a second war that continues to this day.

I was 23 years old when this song was recorded. My country has been bombing Iraq for more than half my life, and I am no longer a young man.

Father Explains

Words and music by Terry Taylor
©1991 Twitchen Vibes/Brainstorm Artists Int’l.. ASCAP/BMI

His bare feet are calloused, he hikes up his pants
His mother says “Son you’re too young for the ranks”
We need food for our family not airplanes and tanks
And that’s where the moneys all gone

Eight brothers and sisters, but three of them died
Caught out in the marketplace with nowhere to hide
The boy thinks God may be over on the devil’s side
Where the line in the sand has been drawn

Father’s screaming now “Somebody put out the light
If God wills it now we’ll be in heaven tonight”
(Oh yeah) The bombs came down like steel rain
(Oh yeah) Hit the ground like steel rain
(Oh yeah) Nothing sounds like steel rain
“It’s our lot in life, son” his father explains

When the total of life has been suffering and hate
Death on the doorsteps and endless debate
Then God only knows how much blood it will take
Before someone makes right all the wrong

So bitter and hardened, too old for his age
The boy screams his madness, succumbs to his rage
Now he’s just another death on the bottom of the page
And that’s how the story goes on

Father’s screaming now “Somebody put out the light
If God wills it now we’ll be in heaven tonight”
(Oh yeah) The bombs came down like steel rain
(Oh yeah) Scarred the ground like steel rain
(Oh yeah) Nothing sounds like steel rain
“It’s our lot in life, daughter” her father explains