Tonight’s song begins with a voice from an old film: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” Then a whistle, a guitar, and a question that runs through the whole song: what’s so civil about war, anyway?
Learn from Songs · Specials: War and peace · B2
Civil War
Guns N’ Roses’ long anti-war song, first released for a children’s charity: rhetorical questions (What’s so civil about war?), while / whereas for contrast, the language of cause and result, and the meaning of “civil”, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
That’s a good question. Civil means polite, doesn’t it?
SOPHIA
Polite, yes, but also “of citizens”. A civil war is a war between people of the same country. And there’s nothing polite about it.
PHILO
Brother against brother.
Before you listen: the song
Los Angeles, 1990
Guns N’ Roses first released “Civil War” in 1990 on Nobody’s Child, a charity album to help orphans in Romania, organised by Olivia Harrison, the wife of George Harrison. It later appeared on Use Your Illusion II (1991).
The song was written by the singer Axl Rose, the guitarist Slash and the bass player Duff McKagan. It opens with a famous line from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke about a “failure to communicate”, and it mentions wars and violence of the twentieth century.
In the song, the singer asks why people go to war, who gains from it, and who suffers. He says that war feeds the rich while it buries the poor, and he refuses to take part.
There is nothing civil about war.
Listen: the questions
PHILO
Listen once. What questions does he ask? Who suffers in war, according to the song?
SOPHIA
Listen to the film voice and the whistle at the start. Then answer Section A.
🕊️ Listen to the song: “Civil War” (Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, 1990), by Guns N’ Roses.Find the recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Civil War”, Guns N’ Roses.Read the lyrics →
Rhetorical questions
MARCOS
What’s so civil about war? Who needs it? Why fight at all?
SOPHIA
A rhetorical question doesn’t want an answer: it makes a point. Who wants to work on a Sunday? = nobody does. Speakers and singers use them to make the audience think.
While and whereas
DEMETRIA
War feeds the rich while it buries the poor. The generals are safe, whereas the soldiers die.
SOPHIA
while / whereas join two contrasting ideas: My brother loves sport, whereas I prefer books. while can also mean “at the same time”: While I was reading, it started to rain.
Cause and result
PHILO
War leads to hunger. Hunger causes anger. As a result, more people fight. Because of the war, the children are orphans.
SOPHIA
lead to, cause, result in + noun; as a result / therefore at the start of a sentence; because of / due to + noun. These are the tools of every history essay.
Sophia’s comparison: Thucydides and Abner
SOPHIA
Thucydides wrote about the civil war in Corcyra, where neighbours killed neighbours and words changed their meaning: madness was called courage, and caution was called cowardice.
PHILO
And in the war between Saul’s family and David’s, Abner called across the valley to Joab: shall the sword devour for ever? Don’t you know it will end in bitterness? How long before you tell your men to stop chasing their brothers?
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rhetorical questions | making a point | What’s so civil about war? |
| while / whereas | contrast | The rich are safe, whereas the poor suffer. |
| lead to / cause / result in | cause → result | War leads to hunger. |
| as a result / therefore | result (new sentence) | As a result, people fled. |
| because of / due to | reason + noun | because of the 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. What line opens the song?
2. What question runs through the song?
3. Who suffers in war, according to the song?
4. Why was the song first released?
5. Who organised that album?
6. What does “civil war” mean?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. What’s so about war? (polite / of citizens)
8. The rich are safe, the poor suffer.
9. War leads hunger.
10. Because the war, they lost their home.
11. As a , many people fled.
12. Hunger can anger. (make it happen)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Because the war, they left.”
14. “War often leads to hunger.”
15. “I like tea, whereas my sister prefers coffee.”
16. “The storm resulted to floods.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Cause and result chain. In groups, start with one event (a drought, a quarrel, a new law) and make a chain of five causes and results: …led to…, as a result…, because of…
Discuss. 1. Can music change anyone’s mind about war? 2. Why are civil wars often the cruellest? 3. Is it ever right to fight? Listen to the other side.
Write (150–180 words). What’s so civil about war? Write a short essay using two rhetorical questions, while / whereas, and four cause-and-result expressions.
Now play the gamebook: two quarters, one quarrel, and a failure to communicate.Play the gamebook →