Thoughts on Richard Thompson’s Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Guitar legend Richard Thompson has released a powerful anti-war track for free on the internet: Dad’s Gonna Kill Me. (Full lyrics and Thompson’s own handwritten lyric cheat sheet are also available online.)
Thompson uses military slang to offer a grunt’s-eye view of the war in Iraq. “Dad” is a nickname for Baghdad. Thompson realizes that the jargon is double-edged. Sometimes slang cuts right through the official euphemisms and lays bare the ugly truth. Other times, troops have their own euphemisms to soften the harsh reality of what they’re doing. The lyrics show how language can serve both functions at once.
In one verse, the soldier-narrator admits that he’s “dead meat” in his “HumV Frankenstein.” These are humvees that soldiers have modified for themselves because the government won’t reinforce their vehicles.
I’m dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time
Somewhere in the middle of the song, the narrator remarks sardonically that “At least we’re winning on the Fox evening news.”
Yet, in the final verse, the narrator seems to poke fun at the euphemisms that he and his fellow soldiers use:
Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody’s dying if you speak double-speak
The angel expression what is military medics use when they lose someone.
“Willie Pete” is G.I. slang for white phosphorus.
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