“Gods of War” by Def Leppard

• Genre: Glam Rock/Hard Rock/Pop Rock
• Single Release Date: Album only 1987
• Album: “Hysteria“

An anti-war track that was never released as a single this is one of my favourite Def Leppard songs. It’s very long at 6:37 and includes recordings at the end of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan justifying 1986 air strikes on Lybia as retaliation for a terrorist bombing in Berlin that was blamed on Libya.

All of that was almost 40 years ago and yet sounds depressingly familiar.

The line “We’re fighting with the gods of war” was played backwards multiple times throughout the single “Rocket“.

Lyrics

Feelin’ like it’s over
Feelin’ like there’s no love
Feelin’ like it’s not easy
Breathin’ life in the dust

On a countdown to zero
Take a ride on the nightmare machine
There ain’t gonna be heroes
There ain’t gonna be anything
Oh, here it comes, here comes the light
Here it comes, hell in the night
Here it comes, here comes the light
When we all fall down

When we walk into silence
When we shadow the sun
When we surrender to violence
Oh, then the damage is done
Put away that gun

I don’t want to be there
I don’t want to be anywhere
Here it comes, here comes the light
Here it comes, hell in the night
Here it comes, here comes the light
That’s right

We’re fightin’ for the gods of war
But what the hell we fightin’ for?
We’re fightin’ with the gods of war
But I’m a rebel
And I ain’t gonna fight no more, no way

On a countdown to zero
Take a ride on the nightmare machine
There ain’t gonna be heroes
Woah, There ain’t gonna be anything, no
Here it comes, here comes the light
Here it comes, hell in the night
Here it comes, here comes the light
That’s right

We’re fightin’ for the gods of war
But what the hell we fightin’ for?
We’re fightin’ with the gods of war
And I ain’t gonna fight no more
(Stop fighting for the gods of war)
We’re fightin’ for the gods of war
But what the hell we fightin’ for?
(What the hell we fightin’ for?)
We’re fightin’ with the gods of war
Heavy

“Message to terrorists everywhere: You can run, but you can’t hide.”

“We’re determined to stand together, and we’re determined to take action”

“We are not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states. We will not cave in”

“Today, we have done what we had to do.”

“He counted on America to be passive, he counted wrong.

Header image from 8Tracks.com