Our last song about war in this section. The young Bob Dylan speaks directly to the people who make and sell weapons. And he is very, very angry.
Learn from Songs · The Green Fields of France · B2
Masters of War
Bob Dylan’s angriest song: relative clauses to describe people by what they do (the people who build the weapons, those who profit from war), speaking directly to someone (You who…), and the language of accusation and responsibility, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria, a prophet’s vision of peace, and a general who wrote a book.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
The same Bob Dylan who asked all those questions in Blowin’ in the Wind?
SOPHIA
The same. Here he doesn’t ask any questions. He accuses.
PHILO
Then it’s a prophet’s song.
Before you listen: the song
New York and London, winter 1962–63
Bob Dylan wrote “Masters of War” during the winter of 1962–63, when he was only twenty-one, partly while visiting England. It appeared on the same album as “Blowin’ in the Wind”, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963). He took the melody from an old English folk song, “Nottamun Town”, which he had learned from the American folk singer Jean Ritchie.
It was the Cold War. Two years earlier, President Eisenhower, himself a famous general, had warned Americans in his farewell speech about the growing power of the companies that make weapons, which he called the military-industrial complex.
In the song, Dylan speaks directly to the people who build the guns, the planes and the bombs, who hide behind desks and walls, and who make money while young men die. He accuses them of lying, of playing with the world like a toy, and of causing the worst fear there is: the fear of bringing children into a world at war. The last verse is very harsh.
After 1963, Dylan didn’t play the song acoustically for thirty years, until a concert in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1994.
You who build the weapons: this song is for you.
Listen: the accusation
PHILO
Listen once. Who is he speaking to? What does he accuse them of?
SOPHIA
The music is simple, just a guitar, but the words are heavy. Answer Section A.
🕊️ Listen to the song: “Masters of War” (Bob Dylan, 1963).Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Masters of War”, Bob Dylan.Read the lyrics →
Relative clauses: describing people by what they do
DEMETRIA
The people who build the guns. The companies that sell the bombs. The men who never fight.
SOPHIA
who for people, which for things, that for both: the man who sold the weapons, the factory which makes them, the war that never ended. They identify exactly which people we mean.
Speaking directly: You who…
MARCOS
He keeps saying: you who… you that… It’s like pointing a finger!
SOPHIA
Exactly. Addressing someone directly, often someone absent, is a powerful technique in speeches and poems: You who make the laws, listen! Notice the old-fashioned you that, common in folk songs and the Bible.
The language of accusation
PHILO
To accuse someone of + -ing. To blame someone for. To profit from. To be responsible for.
SOPHIA
He accuses them of lying. He blames them for the war. They profit from fear. Careful with the prepositions: accuse of, blame for, profit from.
Sophia’s comparison: swords into ploughshares
PHILO
The prophet Isaiah saw the opposite of this song: a day when the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and nobody will learn war any more.
SOPHIA
And General Smedley Butler, an American soldier with two Medals of Honor, wrote a short book in 1935 saying that war is a racket: a business that makes a few people rich. It’s in our Library.
DEMETRIA
So a prophet, a general and a folk singer all said the same thing.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| who / that (people) | relative clauses: identifying people | the men who build the bombs |
| which / that (things) | relative clauses: identifying things | the weapons which they sell |
| You who… / You that… | addressing someone directly | You who make the laws, listen! |
| accuse of + -ing, blame for | accusation | He accuses them of lying. |
| profit from, be responsible for | responsibility | They profit from war. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who is the singer speaking to?
2. How does he feel?
3. What does he accuse them of?
4. Where did the melody come from?
5. What was happening in the world in 1963?
6. How is this song different from Blowin’ in the Wind?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. The people build the weapons never fight. (people)
8. The factory makes the bombs is near the city. (thing)
9. He accuses them lying.
10. They blame the leaders the war.
11. Some companies profit war.
12. who make the laws, listen to us! (address)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “The men which build the bombs are rich.”
14. “He blamed them for the war.”
15. “They accused him to lie.”
16. “This is the song that made him famous.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Compare the three songs. The Green Fields of France, War Pigs and Masters of War: who speaks, to whom, and how? Which do you find most powerful?
Discuss. 1. Is it fair to blame the people who make weapons for wars? 2. Can a song change anything? 3. Is anger ever useful?
Read further. In the Library: War Is a Racket (Smedley Butler), and the novels of the First and Second World Wars: All Quiet on the Western Front, A Farewell to Arms, Slaughterhouse-Five and Catch-22.
Write (150–180 words). An open letter. Write to someone powerful about something you think is wrong. Speak to them directly (You who…), use relative clauses, and finish with what you think they should do.