MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
War/No more trouble (Playing For Change)
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5:10
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/warno-more-trouble-playing-for-change-4069
Description

As we made our way around the world we encountered love and hatred.  We met people both rich and poor, black and white, and from innumerable religious groups and ideologies.  Over the course of our journey it became very clear that as a human race we need to transcend from the darkness to the light, and that music will be our weapon of the future.

Transcript

Until the philosophy which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Oh, everywhere is war, say war

Congo sees war
Children ---

Until there are no longer first class
Second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Everywhere is war, war
Everywhere is war

Killing the brother, war
Destroying the country, war
For nothing, war
For nothing, war
They going to take care of another brother
We don't need no more war

Some winning, some losing
Some dying, some crying
Some singing
We don't need no more trouble
We don't need no more trouble
We don't need no more trouble
Oh no, oh no no no
We don't need no more trouble

We don't need no more trouble
We don't need no more trouble
Oh no, oh no

What we need is love to guide and protect us on
If you help me down from above
Help from where we get strong
Oh, you got to stop the war

We don't need no more trouble
We don't need no more trouble

Explanations

RACE = All of the living human inhabitants of The Earth.


ONE RACE SUPERIOR AND ANOTHER INFERIOR = Supremacism is the belief that a particular race, species, ethnic group, religion, gender, sexual orientation, class, belief system or culture is superior to others and entitles those who identify with it to dominate, control or rule those who do not. The "superior race" belief is based on the theory of group inequality within each species.


SUPERIOR = /su:ˈpɪərɪə/


INFERIOR = /ɪnˈfɪərɪə/


DISCREDITED = Undeserving of trust or belief; destroy confidence in.


SECOND CLASS CITIZENS = (Sociology) A second-class citizen is a person whose rights and opportunities are treated as less important than those of other people in the same society.


COUNTRY = /ˈkʌntrɪ/


FOR NOTHING = Without good reason.


TAKE CARE OF = To assume responsibility for the maintenance, support, or treatment of.


WE DON'T NEED NO MORE WAR = Double negatives cancel one another and produce an affirmative sense. In this case, the second negative is used as an intensifier to a negation.


TROUBLE = /trʌvəl/ A distressing or difficult circumstance or situation.


TO GUIDE ON = To use as a guide.


TO HELP ME DOWN FROM = To help someone down from something; to help someone climb down from something.


ABOVE = /əbʌv/ Over, higher than (without contact).

Meaning

This Song Around the World features musicians who have seen and overcome conflict and hatred with love and perseverance.  “We don’t need more trouble, what we need is love.”


"War" is a song recorded and made popular by Bob Marley. It first appeared on Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1976 Island Records album. The lyrics are almost literally derived from a speech made by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, before the United Nations General Assembly in 1963. The song calls for equality among all without regard to race, class, or nationality in his hymnal cry for peace. It also asserts that until the day of an equal society, there will be war.

Haile Selassie I gave the "War" speech on October 4, 1963, calling for world peace at the 1963 U.N. Conference in New York City. This historical speech was spoken a few weeks after the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded in Ethiopian capital city Addis Ababa where Selassie chaired a summit meeting gathering almost every African head of state.


Here is the part of Haile Selassie’s speech put to music by Marley in his original song “War” (Bob Marley slightly modified the original words, changing each "that until" to "until" and added the word "war" several times):

"That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; That until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil" – Haile Selassie I