Production, mixing, and mastering by Kenzo Estienne
All lyrics by Kenzo Estienne
Copyright 2024
Disclaimer:
This song is not intended to promote or glorify violence. Please read below for further details.
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Some people have asked me why I would write a song that apparently glorifies warfare. My answer is that I do not believe that I have. On the surface, the song is about the M18 Claymore mine, a defensive weapon of war that has been used to great effect in many conflicts--notably, the war in Vietnam. But, of course, there should be more to a song than what sits on the surface.
On a slightly deeper level, the song is about youthful exuberance. Just imagine the amount of energy and fervor it takes to play--as a musician--the song's nearly two minute intro. The song itself is a manifestation of nascent, unshackled energy. This is also reflected in the lyrics. Youth is often associated with rebellion, but it can easily manifest other pathologies: a sense of invulnerability, unearned confidence and righteousness, and a singular focus on one's own skills and competencies. Our hero in the song--narrating through the lyrics--exhibits all of these tendencies. Youthfulness is also embodied by the lyrics on a more meta level: Who else but a young, unruly band would put this much energy into a song about an explosive device?
Then we come to the war. The Claymore mine is a metaphor for this youthful energy, angst, exuberance, naivete, ambition, etc.: so much raw potential in such a small package. I purposefully juxtapose youthful vitality and destructive potential because I had in mind the Vietnam War, where so many young people were sent to die. Vietnam was our last war of attrition, but a better description for it would be a sacrificial altar. That's what "war of attrition" really means. For every youth we sent over there to be killed, ten enemy youths were killed in exchange--a simple, Faustian bargain. The leadership of the time thought this was a winning strategy. Imagine being told, as a teenager, that you had been chosen to be a human sacrifice, so that your nation might gain something in return. Attritional strategy--thankfully now a thing of the past in western doctrine--was an injustice to the young people we sent to the front lines in Vietnam. It was an injustice to their families.
What better metaphor for this barbarity than the Claymore mine? All of that brilliant potential, packed into a tiny volume, then--poof--expended in a flash of violence, for the sake of destroying some number of enemies. Claymore--the song--is meant to be a showcase of that potential, a showcase of youthful exuberance that we can revel in vicariously on the surface level. However, by highlighting that potential in a song explicitly about combat--and focused on a weapon that arguably came of age during the war in Vietnam--it invites the listener to reflect on the incredible wastefulness and injustice of the attritional strategy that characterized that war.
In short, you could say that it does glorify warfare, but only ironically. Irony is easily lost in translation, though, so I thought I should make some note of it here.
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As an aside, you may ask why the song is relevant, given that Vietnam was such a long time ago. I can think of two reasons. The first is that backsliding is always possible. Keeping memory alive may help to prevent such things in the future. The second is that the metaphor--youthful exuberance wasted on violence--can be extended to so many issues faced by our society today, not least gun violence, the brunt of which is borne by our nation's youth.
Despite the bravado of the character at the center of this song, Claymore ends on a somber note. This is because I wanted the fate of our hero to remain uncertain. In my mind's eye, we leave her as she is in the midst of her most challenging battle, facing impossible odds. Whether she lives or dies is left up to the listener.
-Kenzo
3 май 2024
