Big Country - Where The Rose Is Sown Lyrics

Thank you. Great Vid.

Been a bit blown away. Usually a bit more articulate than that. It great though want to watch it again. English?

May you never see where the rose is sown. RIP Corporal Eddie Gargano, USMC, KIA. You are not forgotten Brother. Semper Fi! We all must pass dear friend, but to do so in the service of your country by a sniper's bullet is a good death. To know that you passed from this world--and all of its pain--to Heaven with no pain is a blessing.

Anybody who does not like Big Country do not have the right to listen to music. Unless they attend ' How to appreciate good music therapy sessions '

Never ever forget...BIG COUNTRY, Stuart Adamson Rest In Peace

Powerful imagery to go with a powerful sound. Lump in yer throat and a shiver doon the back o' yer neck - thanx for this.

I sat in my barracks room at Ft Campbell,KY.( in 1984 -1987) many a day during my free time listening to this classic and thinking about those that fought and died for their countries and the causes they died for....I know this was meant to be an anti-war song,but that did not stop me from saluting those who fell for their countries...

This is well written,played and sung, amazing music that is timeless. Very unique sound . It has a deep feeling that most of the music today cannot achieve. God Speed Stuart Adamson and thanks "Big Country" for the awesome music~&~

big country's outstanding song

What a great band!

Probably one of the greatest Anti war songs ever. Sung by the most underrated artist. Absolutely spine tingling.

Cus BIG COUNTRY were the BEST

3:54 that guitar riff along with the rose gives me chills every time

Thanks, Carl. Studied Wilfred Owen's poetry round the same time Big Country hit the charts ... sad, poignant, timeless commentaries on the futility of war ... everyone loses. RIP Wilfred & Stuart.

UNFORTUNATELY WAR IS SOMETIMES NECCESSERY TO FREE THE OPPRESSED... AND PRETTY SOON EUROPE WILL BE IN CIVIL WAR: THE DEFENDERS AGAINST THE INVADERS AND THIER ALLIES THE TRAITEROUS LIBERAL/LEFT MEDIA OPEN BORDER GLOBALISTS... IS SWEAR IF WE WIN AND I SURVIVE I WILL DO ALL I CAN TO MAKE SURE THE GLOBALISTS ARE HUNG OFF WEST MINTER BRIDGE FOR THIER CRIMES

RIP Stuart Adamson.

Very powerful music. Let's keep it's spirit ALIVE

Amazingly emotional song....for me..... B.C. was and still is a huge influence in my head and life... I only wish Stuart's pain could have been healed....for he was a genius.

The original 1000 yard stare. 3:32, guy at bottom left. God knows what he saw. My grandad was in the Great War, at The Somme. He survived, physically, at least.

His best lyrics

Such a brilliant anti-war song and the images go perfect with the message. We lose far too many good people, when ambitious greedy evil leaders decide to play games with our lives.

"Sons of man who stand like gods/
We give life to feed the cause
And run to ground our heathen foe/
Our name will never die, this time will be FOREVER"!
R.I.P. Stuart Adamson, may YOU lie "Where the Rose is Sown"!

We're at war All the papers say
We will win I read today
We are strong It wasn't us
We are right Who started this?
Leave your work I just left school
Leave your home I am no fool
Take up arms It left me strong
Sound alarms The school bell rings

Sons of men who stand like gods
We give life to feed the cause
And run to ground our heathen foe
Our name will never die
This time will be forever

Join up here I wave goodbye
We need you Oh my breast sighs
Have no fear I must try
God will be with braver men
Take the vow I know its right
Praise the flag The good fight
We're at war I'm on my way
We will win Why do I pray?

Sons of men who stand like gods
We give life to feed the cause
And run to ground our heathen foe
Our name will never die
This time will be forever

I wait here in this hole
Playing poker with my soul
I hold the rifle close to me
It lights the way to keep me free
If I die in a combat zone
Box me up and ship me home
If I die and still come home
Lay me where the rose is sown

Sons of men who stand like gods
We give life to feed the cause
And run to ground our heathen foe
Our name will never die
This time will be forever

Nobody added the lyrics when supposedly they are so important to this song, and, at times, difficult to understand. Not even the poster, who did such a wonderful job with the video. I'll do the easy part.

First saw these lads on the pier in NYC. I was there with the most beautiful young lady there. What a fabulous night it was!

If I had a time machine, though, as much as I love this song, I would have had a pint with Stuart, and then leveled with him. I would have said, "Stu, while we all wish to spare the world of unnecessary conflicts, some are unavoidable, and therefore must be fought. Totalitarianism had to be fought. Few men with massive, unchecked power will voluntarily agree to be held accountable, and then things end up bad all around.

Though perhaps received better in Europe, where the Cold War was fraying nerves, in the U.S. neither this song, nor Flame Of The West were good for Big Country's career. The generous AirPlay that it received on The Crossing evaporated, and far fewer 'Mericans have even the vaguest idea how brilliant Steeltown is. The big music media companies then did their best to ignore The Seer, also a solid album.

Meanwhile, their Irish counterparts, U-2, with savvier management, led them to reach far beyond their potential. U-2 is a great band, but is it comprised of vastly better singers/poets/musicians than Big Country? No. They just toured and toured and toured, sang and played their hearts out, and did their best not to irritate the powers that decide who will be played on the radio, and who will not.

The Edge said much the same as you when he gave the eulogy for Stuarts passing, "that BC wrote the songs we wished U2 could have written" alas U2 having sold their SOUL for Rock n Roll. BC tried to stay true, as did The Alarm.

great video

awesome song from an awesome band...RIP Stuart..

big country big band of the 80's .original in thier style.i miss them too ken

My great-grandfather was a scout in the 32nd Wisconsin Volunteers, which took part in Sherman's March to the Sea. He served a total of 60 months and judging by his memoirs he embraced the fight like a lover.

Troy Macgill
Go Yankees, The Grand Union Army!

Dear Stuart: Wherever you stay, I salute you.

great and beatiful song..big country simple great band...W Scotland!!

D Coy, 4th Bn, QLR sent me here....

Easily the best of best of Big Country, the guitar is simply majestic, and the song shifts gear toward the end...
Masterpiece!!

AS always this song is about a young man being sent to fight a war he has no idea about. given no chance to have his own opinion

fuck war- great song

this song is awesome!!!

I think people measure the lives of the men who fight in their name. Certainly history shows when the soldiers life's where not considered. Greed, politics?

ANOTHER GREAT SONG WITH A WORDS TO MATCH THE SOUND OF BIG COUNTRY

HUGELY underated band. That guitar sound is evocative of the pipes and even if you are not a fan thats something special to invent a whole new sound/style of playing - perhaps others have done it but I have not come accross it in my life

You know a good guitarist just by listening to the music, you always know a Stuart Adamson track a mile off.

powerful, majestic,emotional...

Big big music, big sound...Big Country

Brilliantly described, great band - sadly missed.

this is right!!

I swear he says "Fuck' at 3:54 ?   They seemed to use the word "shock" or something like that in a lot of their songs.Fields of Fire being a good example of it.  Always loved it when they did !

He should say fucked, because war has done just that to far many more than those who have died in it

I've always heard it as 'fuck' too. It fits the narrative perfectly.

It's a joke about a sneeze.

The pipes the pipes do they ever play out of joy???

that bomber crew photo haunts me most. so impossibly young. but they all were

I still say that this was one of their best songs.
Dang I miss the 80s and the days of the British Invasion

Every time, every damn time, the hairs on the back of my neck tingle, a timeless classic.

love this song...

great song

Great band and a great track.

there should be graphic images of dead soldiers to show what a waste of life war is only the rich benefit from war and only the working class suffer the new world order manufacture war for profit and to keep us in our place its time to stand up and be counted

Nice One. I blew the dust off of Steeltown tonight and this track (and Just A Shadow) really got me. Forgot how good Stuart Adamson was with a tune and a lyric. Still missed.

I am appalled that you let it collect dust. But glad you got it out.

Setting aside the anti-war sentiments, this is a Big Country song that never gets played on UK radio today, not even on those specialist  "oldies" stations go anywhere near it ! Maybe the anti-war theme is too political and puts them off ? Powerful effort with catchy guitar riffs:

+The Q-Continuum I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the lyrics, but I never interpreted this as anti-war... any more than anything else.

HARDLY THAT - REMEMBER THE LIBERAL/LEFT BASICALLY OWN THE MEDIA AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO OPPOSE WAR EVEN WHEN IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECCESSERY...THINK OF HITLER, HUSSAIN ANDAND MUSLIM EXTREMISTS...

@Shaun Clark Shaun - know your history and geopolitics. The media was what lied to millions of young UK men to join the bloodbath of WW1 making it out to be a great adventure .. The daily media exposure of Vietnam on TV no longer made the term 'war is hell ' just a rhetoric as people saw what war involved. I bet if the true horrors of WW1 were shown to the population and families of the men fighting it would have been brought to an end quicker. Hitler had to be defeated but Saddam Hussain we supported throughout the late 70sand 80s when he started the Iran Iraq war : Plus he gassed the Kurds and Marsh Arabs in the very early 90s at the instruction of Bush Snr to stop Shia influences into Iraq, but he Assad and Gaddafi were vehemently anti fundamentalist but Arab nationalists. Who was doing most of the fighting against the Islamic Fundamentalist you highlight in IS - Jordanians Iranians Syrians Iraqis. Yet who supported those 'freedom fighters' when they were fighting the Soviets - we did .. who armed them we did. They burnt the Jordanian F16 pilot alive.. If that was the case we would not have blundered into Iraq and despite 3 failed British wars in Afghanistan we went back in for a fourth mess .The Taliban were at W Bush's ranch just a couple of years before 9/11. The media exposed those lies.. though not necessarily for just reasons. Plus where we when the Bosnian War was going on in our EU back yard before we acted.. or Rwanda or E Timor. Plus dont forget Irish Terrorism here and in NI, Sikh Terrorism when the Air India Jumbo blew up off Ireland in reprisal for attacks on Sikh holy sites etc in India which also lead to Ghandi's death,or Christian Militias that were allowed in and butchered 000s in Shabba and Shatilla in Lebanon... the world and is not that simple to justify your statement the media are left/liberal and held back any just intervention. Blair was not a Tory Hillary Benn neither who wanted intervention in Libya. The Mail Express Telegraph Sun are certainly not left wing by any margin. We cherry pick when we want to get involved due to geopolitical interests or resources. Kuwait was part of Iraq and artificially annexed by the British then we liberate. We support Saudi Wahabism and look at how we dont do anything even after they murder and dismember someone in one of their embassy's ..

I did not mean that I am against the soldiers, I am against the leaders who order working people to kill each other. Most soldiers belong to the working class. We should support the soldiers, but not the upper-class officers who let people kill each other just to take care of their own money and positions.

I like this song. NATO is supprting fascists and nazis in Ukraine. And the fascist-state Turkey commits war-crimes against Kurdistan. With the full support of Jens Stoltenberg. I am ashamed of being Norwegian.

+Bjørn Venstad Don't let one man make you feel that way, but I get what you mean.

BTW, the only reason your comment caught my eye was because after seeing "NATO" i thought you wrote "Jen Selter". (google her). 8) I thought "wtf?!", so I looked.

Remembering a friend long gone. So long "Rich Man". Thanks for showing me that Big Country is not just great 'cos they're Scottish, but 'cos they're excellent musicians too! You'da been disappointed by the results of the 2014 referendum and Scotland hasn't qualified for the World Cup since you passed. Wish you wuz here!

+PMS From over here in Los Angeles, CA I always thought part of what made them great was that they brought a Scottish "feel" (accent?) to their rock (or, postpunk as I've heard it also called and am inclined to prefer).
One of their best songs I think.

+Sam Isatlacc I'm from la too and agree. loved them as a grad student in the 80s and still do

stating "anti-war not anti soldier" is like saying you're anti driving not anti car. a car has no real purpose unless driven, a soldier no real purpose unless at war. we can make things up soldiers might do to make us feel good, but mostly they are meant to kill and die. that means war, their highest purpose of all. i suppose what is a good war and bad war is in the eye of the beholder, however. but no soldiers mean no war. soldiers make the war, if they just sat it out, well, war would not happen. how can one be anti-war and not against those who fight it? are they dumb? victims? do we pity them? how can one be for them, and against what they do?

+SuperScootDude
And THAT above, ladies and gentlemen, is about as stupid as it gets. Morally bipolar and ignorant in understanding the nature of war, soldiers, or society, much less of how all three need to mesh.

The point I was making is I don't hate on the man or woman who dons a uniform and gets shot at for politicians wars. I'd prefer not to have either but I doubt I'll ever get that wish...

War...war never changes.War makes fuc*** politician not soldiers.

when politicians stop talking wars start and the working class die never the money men or the ruling class

true combat rock

Excellent montage and Message at the end, and most appropriate for the final photo to be one of the brave men who retook the Falklands. Say what you will about Margaret Thatcher, however she carried on that great tradition of the Isle of Briton. She didn't take shit from anyone. She sent the Tommies in and they kicked some ass!

I remember that.

Dude-I always envisioned WW II since I unwrapped the cellophane of my new STEELTOWN "LP, " I envision Germany, 1939-1940, in the heady days of Victory, first in the Sudetenland, then Anschluss, and finally Poland. With bright eyed and smiling, newly minted Hitler Jugend are now Wermecht Recruits. Having sworn there Oath to Der Fuhrer, and poised on the morning of the first day of Operation Barbarossa. But those naive days of early and unstoppable success are gone. It is now winter in Stalingrad, with the young but still alive soldier freezing in an icy foxhole-and thinking back and wondering how it all came to this....

Best video of this yet-first I've seen with the imagery of naive starting of a war but also suffering the flames they've helped light. No side is ever without blame in the two World Wars. This song also reminds me of the Erich Maria Remarque book "All Quiet on the Western Front" (sophomore high school Literature class) and the excellent movie version starring "John Boy Walton" and "Captain McHale" ("Mermaid Man" for you youngsters).

That's my Two Cents

+Sam Isatlacc Ever see the 1993 German movie "Stalingrad?" It's on here and is one of best war movies-it's like the song.

No, I've not seen it, but I will now though. 
BC were great.  This song despite the catchy uplifting beat (fully ironic, of course) is also one of the darkest songs about human feelings/nature/hubris ever put out there - without using any hyperbole, cheap manipulation or going over the top (as it were).  
I like how for all the cocksucking/cheerleading people may have for going to war (especially the sickest of hte trooops), all that is invalidated at the point where the song says - quite fucking frankly -
"I wait here in this hole, playing poker with my soul..." and on. 

Anyway, cheers, and thanks for the movie tip. 

you need to publish your work. wow. and I write for a living.

psychickitty1
I actually assisted the author of a highly awarded biography on her grandfather serving Tsar Nicholas in Russo Japanese War: "The Accidental Anarchist." You can google it. I grew up in a bookstore-my dad had many over the decades-Dartmouth Lit Graduate. Thanks.

Those naive days of machine gunning civilians, those days of hope and dream ...

This is a anti-war song but sadly wars exist..so on that somber note here*s Big Country "Where the Rose is Sown"

Love that drum intro

brings tears to eyes    god the wasted millions of lives!   vastly forgotten band of unforgettable talent, passion and genius   

so spot on mate

+fred michel Spot on loved the group saw them twice live, best live band I have ever seen, massive miss when he died.

today as relevant as ever as we remember the generation lost a century ago....

who said humans don't repeat our dumb asses

brillant!

Perhaps the best song of Big Country / Stuart Adamson ever, and that is really saying something!

Killing mss amounts if peoole have not made the world a better place our wars right now have accomplished nothing some people need killing are you deciding who

superb. 6 days till Kendal & the Steeltown tour. Can't wait

yen - will be there too cant wait

@Harry Nelson yes that was meant to be  - been playing them all night  to build up for tomorrow
 

@Harry Nelson Kendal was superb! This song was particularly good live! Expect my hearing to return next week some time 

Top top band mate  thanks for the video

Underrated band alert

A WHAT????!!!???LMFAO.....

@Chris Montano An alert that goes off when I think a band is underrated ...lol 

Big Country and the Cowboys. You have good taste sir.

@bfbjr Well you like both too so your taste are just as good as mine

Hey, don't forget The Call!

superb .thats all folks

Carl you are so clever - brilliant song - brilliant Utube

 Brilliant!  This song sends a shiver down my spine

awesome song from an awesome band....r.i.p.stuart

Amazing song!

I love the whole song soooo much but my favourite part is from 4:18 to the ending. It has the kicks!

@bellestar1967 Great comment too, by the way. Stuart is definitely missed!

Outstanding! Thanks for posting. Great video to go with a great song.

How many more Red Roses will fall in Syria .Too many!

One of the most complex melodies I've ever heard in a popular song. We miss you Stuart. We really do.

as i said before, this song speaks of the inocence of youth being betrayed by those in so called power

This was an absolutely fabulous album. I listened to it countless times when it came out.

excellent....you brought back my chikdhood memories if trying to copy this from the radio

For a period of about 4 years Big Country were a truly great band. This is one of the best anti-war songs ever written. The 1914-18 generation would have truly understood the meaning.

Why does that matter?
Great lyrics, great music, and most of all A Great Singer! Don't have to be Scottish to love and appreciate the most beautiful country in the world

Yeah, but I never held that against any of 'em Jack. :-P Cheers Jack!

None of the original were born in Scotland, however. ;)

Very good video & song!

Great job, really. This song is my favorite. The scenes really add to it. Thanks

Plenty of politics.... just no one is prepared to fight for politics.... plenty of people fought for pointless shit..... Hence this song......

Greatest band on the fucking planet. I wish I could've seen them.

To my buddy, "Rich Man": You are sorely missed!
"...our name will never die, this time will be forever"

If it's not Scottish pal, it's crap!

only the dead have seen the end of war. - plato

Just an awesome songs, great photo's, and a fitting tribute. I really agree w/ the sentiment about not being anti-soldier, but just anti-war. It's probably unlikely that as a race, we'll ever be free of wars and battles, but it is something to strive for, aspire to. But all the credit in the world to those who have given their lives to their countries.

Well made visuals,great imagery to go with a gr8 song

Some truth? Maybe- just as even a broken clock is right twice a day."Nutters"(so called) - exist in all walks of life, some manage to become soldiers. I like what Patton said, "The idea is not to go out & die for your country, but to make the other sonofabitch die for his.." & the great Golda Meier. "We may one day forgive you for killing our sons, but we will never, ever forgive you for making us kill yours!" Our conflicts are with lunatic mohammadans who believe we should convert or be killed

There's actually some truth in what military arcade says...I'm not anti solider but the comment went in the video to avoid being beaten to death with the patriot stick...see, people who choose to be soldiers get given a rifle and will at some point be expected to shoot it and get shot at, they're not all 'heroes' some of them are complete nutters....but war sucks and killing sucks and necessary wars may have taken place through history, but our current conflicts are a waste of life for nothing

Hmph! Soldiers should be anti you - but they wouldn't be, they protect everyone's right to live out maximum achievement freedom & productiveness, or conversely, the absolute nadir of ignorance as expressed by some...face the unsettling truth - WAR, ugly though it is, is infinitely preferable to several alternatives, & war DOES solve many problems. Don't believe me/accept this truth? Negotiating with Hitler - solved nothing & created a great many problems, war/conquest fixed those problems!

establishment establishment you always know what's best, learn the rules!

As someone who took the King's shilling, all I can say is "well done."

Politicians are too frequently opportunists looking for issues which will enflame the hearts of the populace, who react without adequate thought.

You did this song proud here dude.