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Ivory tusk, smash into thine own To show thee fit to continue I weep for them and I weep for me We rally to charge to die And laugh when it's through Well rise and walk now you're a man Don't try to play catch me if you can Just do as you're told son you must abide Have you gone crazy it never was a free ride Just take your medicine and help it go down Do as you're told boy no need to frown You know it happened to me and your granddad too Not a goddamn any one can do Well sir I don't know but I hear them say If there's no free ride then ride away And it could be me, and it could be strange But I keep hearing voices singing "comes a change" Blood drop spill unto the parched earth And nourish that which is hungry Feast well avenging madness Then call your buzzards down to clean the carcass Well your life's not yours it's everyone's So do the right thing and go for your guns It's how the world was saved and how the west was won So here he comes now you gotta stand or run Just level your iron boy and sight him in You ain't out to die boy You're out to win You know you hate him, you must know he hates you Not a goddamn anyone can do Well if my life is everyone's well good that's fine But you've yet to prove that that makes his life mine And it could be me and I could be strange But I keep hearing voices singing "comes a change" Like rain and thunder washing everything away That's what I hear them say You might just prefer to pray It's the same thing anyway Ivory tusk, smash into thine own To show thee fit to continue I weep for them and I weep for me We rally to charge to die And laugh when it's through Well sir I don't know but I hear them say If there is no free ride then ride away And it could be me, and it could be strange But keep hearing voices singing "comes a change" Like rain and thunder washing everything away That's what I hear them say You might just prefer to pray Like rain and thunder washing everything away That's what I hear them say You might just prefer to pray © 1991 Blues Traveler Music |
First release: Travelers & Thieves Released: 09/03/1991 Song information:
Other recordings of "Ivory Tusk": Travelers & Thieves/On Tour Forever, 1991 Travelers & Thieves pre-production tape, 1991 Birmingham Alabama, April 1992, 1992 King of New York, 1993 When the Lights Go Down, 1994 Run-Around, 1994 |
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This song was written in response to the Persian Gulf conflict of early 1991. Much like Onslaught, it appears to have an anti-war sentiment in general, and could be interpreted as a three-way dialogue - the first and fourth stanzas appear to be some sort of narrator describing the conflict. The second and fifth stanzas sound like the pro-war argument while the third and sixth stanzas appear to be a protest from the soldier. Ivory tusk, smash into thine own/To show thee fit to continue The use of ivory here may be a reference to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, where the ivory trade represents man's greed and tendency to destruction. It ends up standing for the erosion of man's values; wherever there is ivory to be had, it drives men insane and leads them to kill themselves, or "smash into thine own". The idea of killing one's own has often been attributed as unique to mankind. Mark Twain, in his essay "What is Man" wrote, in part: "Man is the only animal ... that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind."Just take your medicine and help it go down "Take your medicine" could be likened to "eat your vegetables", i.e. even though you might not like doing it, it's good for you.Well sir I don't know but I hear them say The use of "sir" here sounds like a son addressing his father or a soldier addressing his superior.Then call your buzzards down to clean the carcass A possible criticism of those who wait until the enemy is dead to come in and claim victory; buzzards do not do their own hunting but instead let others kill and then feed on the remains.how the west was won "How the West was Won" was a western movie released in 1963 which later became a TV show in the late 1970's. The movie profiles the expansion of the US westward and shows the consequences of American Manifest Destiny, mostly through violence.Just level your iron boy and sight him in Level your iron = aim your gun.You know you hate him, you must know he hates you Typical of war propaganda, designed to elicit emotions of hatred against the enemy - from both sides.Well if my life is everyone's well good that's fine/But you've yet to prove that that makes his life mine "My life is everyone's" could be interpreted to mean that he no longer has control over his life because he has signed it away to his country in the war he is fighting in. But he protests this by saying that by his beliefs, that still doesn't entitle him to kill others. |
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