After the soldier’s grave in the Green Fields of France, a very different song about war. It’s loud, it’s angry, and it asks a simple question: who starts wars, and who fights them?
Learn from Songs · The Green Fields of France · B2
War Pigs
A heavy metal protest against war: should for criticism and rhetorical questions (Why should they…? Who should…?), comparisons with like and as, and the vocabulary of war, power and responsibility, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria, and a soldier who dared to speak in the Iliad.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Black Sabbath! That’s heavy metal!
DEMETRIA
Is it a scary song?
SOPHIA
The music is heavy. But the question is one the Greeks asked three thousand years ago.
Before you listen: the song
Birmingham, England, 1970
Black Sabbath were four young men from the industrial city of Birmingham, in England. They are often called the first heavy metal band: dark, slow, very loud guitar music. “War Pigs” opens their second album, Paranoid (1970).
At first the song had a different title and was about witches. But it was 1970, the Vietnam War was on the news every night, and the bass player Geezer Butler rewrote the words about war instead.
The song compares the generals and politicians who plan wars to witches gathering at a midnight meeting. It says that the powerful start the wars, but stay safely at home, and send the poor to fight instead. They treat soldiers like pieces in a game. And at the end, the song imagines a day of judgement, when the powerful have to answer for what they have done.
The images in the last verse are dark and dramatic, in the style of heavy metal. The message is old and simple: those who decide on war should be the ones who pay for it.
Why should the poor fight the wars that the powerful start?
Listen: the accusation
PHILO
The song is long, with a long instrumental part. Listen to the verses. Who does the singer accuse? What does he say about the politicians?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A. Remember: we describe the song in our own words.
⚔️ Listen to the song: “War Pigs” (Black Sabbath, 1970).Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “War Pigs”, Black Sabbath.Read the lyrics →
Should: criticism and rhetorical questions
DEMETRIA
Why should the poor fight? The politicians should go themselves!
SOPHIA
should / shouldn’t express what is right or wrong: Leaders should take responsibility. A rhetorical question is a question that doesn’t want an answer, only agreement: Why should they go, when the leaders stay at home? For the past: should have / shouldn’t have.
Comparisons: like and as
MARCOS
Generals like witches. People treated like pieces in a game of chess.
SOPHIA
like + noun compares: He fights like a lion. as + adjective + as: as cold as ice. And a useful idiom: to be a pawn = to be used by more powerful people, like the smallest piece in chess.
The vocabulary of war and power
PHILO
Politicians, generals, soldiers, troops, the front line, to declare war, to send troops.
SOPHIA
And the moral words: responsibility, to blame, to answer for, judgement, to profit from. Who should answer for this war?
Sophia’s comparison: Thersites speaks
SOPHIA
In the Iliad, an ordinary soldier, Thersites, stands up in the assembly and shouts at King Agamemnon: you take the best prizes, and we do the fighting. Go home, everybody!
PHILO
And what happened to him?
SOPHIA
Odysseus beat him with a staff, and everybody laughed. Homer makes him ugly and ridiculous. But nobody ever answered his question.
DEMETRIA
So War Pigs is Thersites, with electric guitars.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| should / shouldn’t + verb | what is right or wrong | Leaders should take responsibility. |
| Why should…? | rhetorical questions | Why should the poor fight? |
| should have + past participle | criticism of the past | They should have stopped the war. |
| like + noun / as… as | comparisons | He treats them like pawns. |
| to declare war, to send troops, to answer for | war and responsibility | They will answer for it. |
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. What is the song about?
2. Who does the song accuse?
3. What does it say about the politicians?
4. What does the song compare the generals to?
5. Which war was on the news when it was written?
6. How does the song end?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Why the poor fight their wars? (rhetorical)
8. Leaders take responsibility. (what is right)
9. They should stopped the war. (past criticism)
10. He treats people pawns in a game.
11. The government decided to troops to the border.
12. One day they will have to answer what they did.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “They should to go and fight themselves.”
14. “Why should we pay for their mistakes?”
15. “He fights like a lion.”
16. “They should have stop the war.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Debate. “Leaders who declare war should have to fight in it.” Prepare arguments for and against, using should, shouldn’t, why should…?
Compare. How is War Pigs different from The Green Fields of France? Think about who speaks, the music, and the feeling.
Read further. In the Library, War Is a Racket by General Smedley Butler, a soldier with two Medals of Honor, argues that wars are fought for the profit of a few. Read the first chapter and compare it with the song.
Write (150–180 words). Who should decide? An opinion essay: who should have the power to start a war? Use should, a rhetorical question, and at least one comparison with like.