Song Lyric Analysis

Song:Light Up Ya Lighter
Artist: Michael Franti and Spearhead
Genre: Hippie Music
Released: 2005

This song is about the War on Iraq. This artist is obviously against the war and thinks we are in the war for the wrong reasons. He says "The war for oil is a war for the beast, the war on terror is a war on peace." He talks about how politicians and people are saying this war is nothing like Vietnam. He says "This one is nothing like Vietnam, except for the bullets, excepts for the bombs, except for the youth that's gone." He obviously feels we are wasting lives on this war. Michael Franti is very anti-war. He talks about the ugly truth of war and says "Here's what you get. An M16 and Kevlar vest. You might come home with one less leg but this thing will surly keep a bullet out your chest." This whole song is full lyrics against the war, and sort of puts things into a different perspective, that I had never thought about.

This issue affects everyone in the US. Particularly the people who have family or friends in Iraq. There are both supporters of the war and people against the war. In 2005 when this was written there weren't as many people against the war as there are now. Now the majority of people want our troops to come home, and for the war to end. This is both a ethical, and social issue. We are spending a lot of money on this war, that many tax payers feel we shouldn't even be in. Especially with our struggling economy. This issue is hopefully being resolved, Obama is trying to get the troops out of Iraq as quickly as possibly.

Through my research I have found that many people agree with what I think about the song. This song is pretty straight forward and says exactly what it means. When this song came out the war on Iraq was claiming many US lives per year. In the year of 2005 there were 849 casualties. In total the war has claimed 4367 US lives claimed. This supports his thoughts that too many lives are being taken for a war he doesn't think we should be in. There are many anti-Iraq wars that help support Franti's views. On the other side, there are many pro-Iraq war sights. The US has spent $800 billion on the Iraq War. In other parts of his song he discusses how were wasting money. He talks about how we should bring the troops home, which many many people agree with.



http://icasualties.org/
http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm
http://bringtroopshomenj.org/