Sweet Action Jackson's angry diatribe "We Drink War Like Water" began as a response to the feverish and vivid leanings toward war with Iraq by the Bush administration in early 2003. Penned in about twenty minutes, lead singer Kyle Hale comments on the song:
I had read a quote about one administration official calling 9/11 a "lucky" event because it gave a strong pretext to fighting terrorism. And of course it hit me that these people saw war - the war of the "we break things and kill people" kind - was a viable and efficient solution to the problems of the world. There was no understanding, only fear. There was no communication, only anger. There was no cooperation, only annihilation. So I wrote this song about the nature of war as just one more tool in the government's chest of diplomacy. In their view, war isn't right, but righteous.
Several of the passages within also sprang up from an editorial Hale wrote for the student newspaper at his alma mater, Texas A&M University. The column was partially censored, and the facts about civilian deaths in Iraq were viciously and angrily disputed in the letters section the next day, though no one offered any refutable proof. Hale felt like he had been challenged by rhetoric instead of truth, and wondered why the facts didn't have more of an impact on the people reading the paper.
We Drink War Like Water
(Hale)
There's a heathen in our midst
He's thinking things we've dismissed
Root 'em out, off to the Star Chamber
Don't worry now, we're out of danger
Keep on fighting
We'll keep on fighting back
We exist to obfuscate
We drink war like water
We drink war like water
We drink war like water
Don't think you know the truth
It's being created as we speak
Elegant with the victor's touch
Taking the gospel to the streets
Push us down
And suddenly down is up
The machine is whirring
We sell war like sin
We sell war like sin
We sell war like sin
We bring war like justice
We play war like pretend
We hunt war like game
We are warlike
We are warlike
We are warlike
The rolling piano throughout leads to a sweltering crescendo by the final cry of "We are warlike," tying together the primal urges of man with the bombastic and urgent hammering of two large chords to fill out the rest of the song. The thudding bass line gives the song a slight air of intrigue and uneasiness, while the soft jazzy touch of the drums bring tight focus to the song's vocal highlights.
Currently, the song is unavailable, but SAJ plays a mean live show, and this song always gets a lot of attention for its inventive chords and compelling lyrics.
Permission to repost the lyrics granted graciously by kthejoker.