With God on Our Side (Music Video of the Week)

Music Video of the Week, 29 Jan 2024

Bob Dylan | BBC – TRANSCEND Media Service

Live 1964

This is one of the very few surviving television broadcasts from Bob’s early days aired on 12 May 1964, five days before his legendary concert at Royal Festival Hall. Here:     • Bob Dylan Live at Royal Festival Hall…  .

Fun Fact: This clip was part of a program called Tonight. A 17-year-old David Bowie (then known as Davy Jones) appeared on the same program in the same year as Dylan, as part of a story on Bowie’s newly founded “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men”. No doubt Dylan would have cheered on such a crusade.

LYRICS:
Oh my name it is nothin’ My age it means less
The country I come from Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it They tell it so well
The cavalries charged The Indians fell
The cavalries charged The Indians died
Oh the country was young then With God on its side

And the names of the heroes l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands And God on their side
But I learned to accept it Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead When God’s on your side

Oh the Spanish-American War had its day
And the Civil War too Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting I never got straight
But I learned to accept it Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead When God’s on your side

When the Second World War Came to an end
We forgave the Germans And we were friends
Though they murdered six million In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too Have God on their side

I’ve learned to hate Russians All through my whole life
If another war starts It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely With God on my side

But now we got weapons Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to Then fire them we must
One push of the button And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions When God’s on your side

Through many dark hour I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot Had God on his side

So now as I’m leavin’ I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’ Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side He’ll stop the next war

************************

bobdylan.com/songs/god-our-side

Copyright 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 29 Jan 2024.

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