Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Test of the Boomerang XII: “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”

by Ben Wiser

I was eleven or twelve. I was riding with my dad. We were driving back from somewhere. We were listening to the radio. It was just my dad and me. All of the sudden, a strange kind of music comes on. The vaguely-Eastern sounding keyboards and guitar arpeggios sound cool enough, then the vocals start: “IF I HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER, I’D MAKE SOMEBODY PAY.”

Whoa.

Here was a song about a guy who is singing about getting a rocket launcher — a rocket launcher — and after asking “how many kids did you kill today?” was going to make somebody pay. It was like somebody took the plot to Commando and made a song out of it. Already this was the most badass song I had ever heard, but nothing could have prepared me for that final verse.

“If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die!”

This was on the radio! The guy not only said “son of a bitch,” but he said “some son of a bitch would DIE!” He was gonna take that rocket launcher and he was gonna kill that son of a bitch! This was in a song! The most intense lyric I had heard on the radio before that was that “the union of the snake was on the prowl.”

My dad and I got home and I ran into my room, totally energized with pre-adolescent macho awkwardness. I turned on my radio and slowly, very slowly turned the knob up and down the radio dial until I could catch that song.

Well, days went by, weeks went by, months, years. I don’t think I ever heard the song on the radio again. Then, ten years ago, I remembered the song and I went looking for it on Napster.

The artist was Bruce Cockburn, a prolific and respected Canadian singer-songwriter who has been at it since the late 1960s. He never had an American hit, except for “Rocket Launcher,” which made it to #88 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was written in response to the plight of Guatemalan refugees during the brutal regime of Efraín Ríos Montt. Cockburn witnessed the atrocities of the Guatemalan Civil War.

I don’t believe in guarded borders and I don’t believe in hate
I don’t believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher … I would retaliate

I can’t think of a more impassioned and vehement protest song that has garnered noticeable airplay since this song in 1984. As a dumb kid, with handfuls of action figures in Reagan’s America, I only saw images of cartoon explosions and rocket launchers and flame throwers; Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes.

My dad didn’t say much on that drive home. I knew he understood the song and I am sure he didn’t quite know how to explain to me what it was about. But talk about a powerhouse of a song. I remembered it ten years later. I learned what was going on then. Things that are still happening and continue to happen. I understand that frustration and that horror now. And even more so now, I can appreciate and taste the venom when he spits out the line, “… some son of a bitch would die.”

Bruce Cockburn — “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” from the album ‘Stealing Fire’ (1984)

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  • Agreed. It's a song I've always loved. Probably one of the angriest songs I've ever heard, and it gains power by coming from an artist whose work is often informed by his Christian faith.
  • The union of the snake, technically, was on the climb. :)
  • BenW
    Maybe I was thinking about 'Hungry Like the Wolf'
  • breadalbane
    This is a great song, no question. But Bruce Cockburn isn't a one-hit wonder. He actually had a much bigger hit in the US in 1980, when "Wondering Where The Lions Are" hit the top 40.

    In Canada, the man has a drop-dead arsenal of chart hits, including the above two songs, "Lovers In A Dangerous Time", "Fascist Architecture", "Tokyo", "Dream Like Mine", etc. etc. He's definitely worth checking out if you're not already familar with his work.
  • jim
    CBC archives have a great acoustic version of the song from a concert he performed.It may even be on the Hype Machine
  • When I interviewed Bruce a couple years ago, I asked him what it was like to tour the States so soon after Bush's re-election. He tends to attract a left-of-center audience, obviously, and he's very generous with them. He recognizes, for example, that hearing "Rocket Launcher" is almost therapeutic for the fans who share his rage and disappointment. But I was really surprised by another comment he made: "Singing 'Rocket Launcher' and having to relive the sound of those people’s voices and the feeling and the smell of being there is not fun." Sadly, the anger in that song was hard-earned.

    Thanks for the great post.
  • As I own almost all of Cockburn's official recorded output, I can't resist inserting my two cents. While appreciating the art of his expression, I don't exactly agree with his take on the world.

    Objectively, I agree that sometimes evil is wrought by the USA. But as per Randy Newman's "few words in defense of our country," it's relative. Constantly the dialogue between Pontius Pilate and Ben-Hur in the 1959 classic is brought to my mind. Ben-Hur tells Pilate what Rome has unjustly done to his family. Pilate's reply: "Where there is greatness, great government or power, even great feeling or compassion, error also is great." It is the nature of the beast, because we are human, and human institutions are going to multiply human foibles on a grand scale, even when intentions are good.

    I don't know exactly what variety of Christian Bruce Cockburn is. His indignation at injustice is not really all that different from some of David's Psalms. My Christianity is secure in the understanding that God is just and will repay the evildoers, whatever their politics or philosophy. That calmness seemed to inform Cockburn's earlier work. Perhaps I selfishly wish, as a listener, that he would be a little more of an entertainer and less of a philosopher. Though, with all the bad and sad in the world, I can't really blame him for lamenting the dark side.
  • Al Phalfa
    Actually, your youthful reaction to the song was just as insightful as anyone else's. Cockburn is enough of an artist to know that whatever political thoughts he was thinking are not really what the song is about. Just like a story, the song can have more than one meaning. Some time later, Cockburn realized he was thinking on the wrong side when he wrote that song, but it's still a good song.
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