Reply #11: I first heard it on a bootleg of the West Point Dave & Tim show... [View All]

[VolcanoJen]

:-) Come and GET ME, RIAA! :-)

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds did a campus-only acoustic tour over the spring, during the height of the build-up toward war in Iraq. Dave debuted "Gravedigger" during these acoustic shows (I finally saw one in person, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio on March 31, 2003) and it was easily the song that got the largest ovation from the crowd. Dear God, what an amazing, poignant, and timely song...

Anyhow, at the West Point show on March 23, 2003, Dave purposefully changed the "Dancing Nancies" lyrics to "What if I were... a marching soldier?" during that show, and every time I hear that song now, I think of that moment...

ON EDIT: Love or hate Dave as an artist, but he is assuredly one of those artists who is on our side, politically. Here's what he issued as an official statement, on the DMB website, right at the dawn of the war on Iraq:

http://www.dmband.com/news/news_popup_iraq.asp

Dave Matthews Speaks Out About the War

I hope this letter finds you all well and that in these uncertain times you find moments to be joyful.

I want to speak my mind about this war with Iraq, or I will choke on my conscience.

What is the motivation? Regime change? Shouldn't that be up to the people of the region and the people of Iraq? The only real threat from Saddam Hussein is to his neighbors and none of them support a U.S. invasion. Is it to stabilize the Middle-East? Wouldn't it only do the opposite by causing further death and suffering in a country that has had more than its share?

Is it to weaken Al Qaeda? Saddam Hussein is a genocidal maniac but he is not Al Qaeda. He is certainly more visible though. Is he our target because he is easier to identify than the illusive terrorist network? Surely it is more likely that an attack on Iraq would only strengthen Al Qaeda by feeding Anti-American sentiment. Putting out the fire with gasoline, so to speak. It is certainly not to liberate the people of Iraq who suffer under Hussein's rule, unless we call killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis liberation.

Saddam Hussein is a barbaric murderous dictator. I wish the world were free of him. But the answer is not to bomb this great culture of Iraq out of existence to stop him. Why must the children of Iraq die by the thousands to stop a tyrant? It is not justice. And if we kill him what will we achieve? We will have taken the most unpopular leader in the Middle East and turned him into the greatest martyr radical Islam has ever had. The U.N. weapons inspectors must be allowed to do their job thoroughly and any military action should be internationally agreed upon. We must not allow our government to turn us into a rogue nation.

I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge. It is criminal to put our servicemen and women in harm's way and to put the lives of so many civilians on the line for the misguided frustrations of the Bush administration.

Bottom line: this war is wrong and this war is un-American.

Peacefully submitted,
Dave Matthews