A song by
10,000 Maniacs, about
Agent Orange. From the EP
Human Conflict Number Five; if you're not a
10kM collector, your best bet is to get `
Hope Chest', a
rerelease of the
material from
HC#5 and
Secrets of the I Ching.
Lineage closed Dissolved In its birth Tragedy Prelude a balance Is a synergy Of reason Malicious hope As techno atrocities Lapse their effects Associate these ends Their clarity Demands your revenge Please compensate Not Deny Jungle Revenge Infanticide Crosses Very thin walls Latent casualties Arrive From fatal initiation No longer recessive Genetic aliens abandoned Plain deceit In the mirage of A just one time cause We'd all changed The clocks No ladies auxiliary to kiss Their blistered cheeks Gone.
© 1990 Christian Burial Music. The recordings are (P) 1982, 1990 Elektra Entertainment, a division of AOL.
The lack of line breaks is their idea, not mine. The whole thing is set to music far too happy to have these lyrics associated with it. This is a trick not many bands can pull off. 10,000 Maniacs in the early 1980s were very good at it.
See also the R.E.M. song `Orange Crush', another song about Agent Orange.
As for rhymes, Tom Lehrer once rhymed `orange' with the first two syllables of `more enjoyable'. This is somewhat reminiscent of his:
You may think it very tragic
Not to mention other adjec-
tives to think of all the mourning they will do.