Song of the Week Peacemaker

[EvanAsFuck]

Love this song... It's so different and odd that it's just amazing! I'd love to see it played live sometime though...

[Lu.]

Awesome. Totally deserved♥

I definitely imagine gypseys around a bonfire...or Argentinian gauchos

LOL Argentinian gauchos definitely no... But yes Spanish dancers, or gypsies.

[CzechIdiot]

This song is amazing. I love how is it different. The lyrics and the music are just awesome, I think it should definately have a music video..

Favorite lyrics - Well death to the ones at the end of the serenade

[Undómiel]

YAY!!!

I adore this song.... it was my first favourite off 21st CB and I was always secretly hoping they'd make it into a single... but never mind. I had this on repeat for ages after I got the CD... awesome song!

[Schlappy]

i love this song! it was the song that stood out for me on my first listen through of the 21stCB album. i really wish they would play it live more, they only seem to tease

[maz17]

When I heard it I wasnt sure, but right now I love it so much

I love that its sounds so different from everything else on the album, and I love the lyrics

Also what tre said, and having the idea of a gun being a peacemaker. I would also love to see this song live

[Bastard of 1967]

'Peacemaker' has been one of my favorites from the album ever since I first heard it. It's just so upbeat and just catches your attention. I absolutely love the story-feel it has and I always envision what this music video would look like if it had one. Anyways, I thought this song is about a man who wants to get revenge on a girl he had a relationship with and he goes out and kills her during a serenade. There's still some parts I don't fully understand yet~ does he want revenge because she isn't faithful to God anymore? Because of this line: "As God as my witness/The infidels are gonna pay" I'm not sure but so far that's what I'm thinking lol.

. . .

Edit: I wrote this post before I watched the video about GD talking about the song, and how interesting about calling a gun a peacemaker! I guess the man wants to rid the world of infidels and create 'peace'?

Sorry haha I love analyzing songs XD

+1 rep for you just for taking a stab at it. I think you're definitely on the right page -- but like a few of the more "fuzzy" songs on 21CB, I'd suggest taking a "bigger picture" view of it....something that's less-particular or less-specific that captures the gist of what *most* of the lyrics seem to collectively be getting at. Where this leads me first is to focus on the word "Peacemaker" itself. This Wikipedia entry indicates that the Colt Single Action Army Revolver (otherwise known with greater familiarity as the "Colt 45") is nicknamed "The Peacemaker." Every verse in this song deals with some aspect of the violence -- particularly, the gun violence -- that pervades 21st Century life both in America and in the rest of the world.

The violence that Peacemaker rages against may be initiated by the state, by the military -- the very first verse evokes the Crusades. Damn heathen infidels, get them out of the Holy Land. Who wants to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and kill a few hundred thousand of those [insert the racial sterotype of your choice here]? We've taken a war against the world's largest organized religion and repackaged it for the media as a "war on terror." Yeah, right, tell me another one.

The second and third verses end in "Death to the girl at the end of the serenade" and "Death to the lover that you were dreaming of", and I think shift the song's focus to exactly what you noted in your post -- private violence between two enraged lovers...who, again, choose to use a gun to settle the score.

I see the fourth verse as more like a summary of the first three, ramming home the point that the way to settle disputes in our society, in our world, isn't by civilized discussion anymore. It's by calling the Peacemaker and sending your enemy "back to the place where it all began." Get your weapon, aim, fire, end of problem. So long as you're not the one who ends up in the crosshairs, I suppose.

The last verse is the one that sends chills up my spine because the meaning is so clear, and paints such a sinister and haunting picture. It lays out for the listener exactly where all this violence has gotten us, what it's doing to us, and what it will do to our children. "Now the caretaker's the undertaker" -- Parents are burying their (murdered) children. "So I'm gonna go out and get a Peacemaker" -- and the vicious cycle of murder-revenge-murder repeats itself. "This is the neo St. Valentine's Massacre" ... There's a good Wikipedia article about this here and I think Billie Joe is using this reference to equate this cycle of gun violence to the Prohibition-era slaughter of 7 Chicago-area gang members -- which at that time was one of the most horrific crimes society had witnessed, and which ultimately marked the beginning of the downfall of the Capone crime syndicate. This leads me to wonder whether Billie is rhetorically questioning what it's going to take for modern society to reach the point where it's finally had enough of this violence and is willing to stand up and actually do something about it. Finally, there's the reference to Gaza, which I interpret to suggest that the slaughter we hear about that occurs in this God-forsaken part of the world is actually going on right under our noses, right here. For all the talk about conquering international terrorism, there is murder on an epic scale that is occurring in our own backyard, in our own cities, towns, neighborhoods, communities...and yet we do nothing in response. We tolerate it, we steel ourselves against it, we tune it out, we try to pretend it doesn't exist. The result: "death to the ones at the end of the serenade" -- death to the non-specific, impersonal, collective "ones" -- death, that is, to us.

[minorty13]

This song is just plain sexy. There's no other way I can think to describe it!

[Catsername]

+1 rep for you just for taking a stab at it. I think you're definitely on the right page -- but like a few of the more "fuzzy" songs on 21CB, I'd suggest taking a "bigger picture" view of it....something that's less-particular or less-specific that captures the gist of what *most* of the lyrics seem to collectively be getting at. Where this leads me first is to focus on the word "Peacemaker" itself. This Wikipedia entry indicates that the Colt Single Action Army Revolver (otherwise known with greater familiarity as the "Colt 45") is nicknamed "The Peacemaker." Every verse in this song deals with some aspect of the violence -- particularly, the gun violence -- that pervades 21st Century life both in America and in the rest of the world.

The violence that Peacemaker rages against may be initiated by the state, by the military -- the very first verse evokes the Crusades. Damn heathen infidels, get them out of the Holy Land. Who wants to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and kill a few hundred thousand of those [insert the racial sterotype of your choice here]? We've taken a war against the world's largest organized religion and repackaged it for the media as a "war on terror." Yeah, right, tell me another one.

The second and third verses end in "Death to the girl at the end of the serenade" and "Death to the lover that you were dreaming of", and I think shift the song's focus to exactly what you noted in your post -- private violence between two enraged lovers...who, again, choose to use a gun to settle the score.

I see the fourth verse as more like a summary of the first three, ramming home the point that the way to settle disputes in our society, in our world, isn't by civilized discussion anymore. It's by calling the Peacemaker and sending your enemy "back to the place where it all began." Get your weapon, aim, fire, end of problem. So long as you're not the one who ends up in the crosshairs, I suppose.

The last verse is the one that sends chills up my spine because the meaning is so clear, and paints such a sinister and haunting picture. It lays out for the listener exactly where all this violence has gotten us, what it's doing to us, and what it will do to our children. "Now the caretaker's the undertaker" -- Parents are burying their (murdered) children. "So I'm gonna go out and get a Peacemaker" -- and the vicious cycle of murder-revenge-murder repeats itself. "This is the neo St. Valentine's Massacre" ... There's a good Wikipedia article about this here and I think Billie Joe is using this reference to equate this cycle of gun violence to the Prohibition-era slaughter of 7 Chicago-area gang members -- which at that time was one of the most horrific crimes society had witnessed, and which ultimately marked the beginning of the downfall of the Capone crime syndicate. This leads me to wonder whether Billie is rhetorically questioning what it's going to take for modern society to reach the point where it's finally had enough of this violence and is willing to stand up and actually do something about it. Finally, there's the reference to Gaza, which I interpret to suggest that the slaughter we hear about that occurs in this God-forsaken part of the world is actually going on right under our noses, right here. For all the talk about conquering international terrorism, there is murder on an epic scale that is occurring in our own backyard, in our own cities, towns, neighborhoods, communities...and yet we do nothing in response. We tolerate it, we steel ourselves against it, we tune it out, we try to pretend it doesn't exist. The result: "death to the ones at the end of the serenade" -- death to the non-specific, impersonal, collective "ones" -- death, that is, to us.

You really dug in deep with this song....I like it! I definitely like the "bigger picture" you're talking about. I knew there was something I was missing, and that this song just can't be about 2 lovers turned violent; there's gotta be some other message behind it and it makes sense now! I didn't think about looking up "Peacemaker," I thought it just plainly meant someone that makes peace . But anyways, I highlighted the parts in your post that I think really explains it well. This song is way more 'sinister' and 'haunting' than I first thought. And the murder-revenge-murder cycle is really chilling. It's like a trap that we can't get out of, or, a trap that no one is doing anything about or even trying to get out of. And I think you're right about Billie questioning how much more violence the modern age can take. It kind of reminds me of "Holiday," when people are on 'holiday' and not doing anything to combat all of the craziness going on around them at the time.

You're last sentence really is depressing and chilling as well. Depressing because it is partly true if this vicious cycle keeps going on, and chilling again because there is so little being done about it. But Billie seems optimistic though, as this song comes right before "Last Of The American Girls." Gloria, perhaps, has the strength and courage to stand up to this violent cycle.

All in all, I love your interpretation of this (if you couldn't tell already ) And who knew one can learn so much from joining a Green Day fansite? Billie absolutely blows my mind sometimes with his lyrics! I love it!

[pasalaska]

I love this song because it's kinda awkwardly different to the rest of 21CB. It really stands out. My favourite parts have to be the bit where the guitar distorts at around 2:12 and the very end 'well death to the ones at the end of the se...rrra...NAAADE'

The lyrics to this were taped to the floor of the stage where Billie's mic is during the 2010 US tour, and I remember hoping that they'd play it. Then before GD came on in Denver, one of the roadies ripped the lyrics off, and the group of us at the front were heartbroken. But then, the roadie came back, and taped some new, unknown song's lyrics to the floor. Turned out they were the lyrics to Cigarettes and Valentines. So while I was cut up about not getting to see Peacemaker, we got to see C&V instead.

[Bastard of 1967]

And who knew one can learn so much from joining a Green Day fansite? Billie absolutely blows my mind sometimes with his lyrics! I love it!

Thanks! I'm sure there are other parts of the song that I've glossed over or otherwise missed -- and I *always* love to hear what others' interpretations are -- depending on how you approach the song or what you're looking for in it, you can come up with something completely different. Billie Joe is such a gifted songwriter and he keeps getting better with age....sometimes our excursions in the SOTW threads can be like a little treasure-hunt going through the lyrics. We find a few nuggets, a few hints, a cross-reference or two, run with it and see where it takes us. Always fascinating. It was the SOTW threads that really first attracted me to GDC (ok, well, yeah, that and the best-available scoop on the 21CB release and the tour!) and I basically live in them now. Thanks for joining us here!

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

Really nice song with fabulous, great lyrics.

Michael's [*praying I got the right name*] (great) analyse pretty much said it all.

I don't know a favourite lyric, but I really like the wordplay in:

For I am the Caesar

I'm gonna seize the day

[fev5]

When 21st Century Breakdown first came out this was one of the songs i took to straight away. It really stood out and was a bit different. Great song.

[Mar]

I live kind of close to Detroit so, of course, "I am a killjoy from Detroit"

[justcause]

'Peacemaker' - yeah, cause it's shut up, shut up, silence all of this shit in my head. It opens a whole vista of everything from suicide bombers to school shootings to 'domestic' stuff, and under it is the defense-attack against inadequacy, the violence of incoherent emotion - 'can't take, can't take anymore - take back'. Because yeah, this song is all first person - this is all seeing the place and knowing the place, that's why this song is so strong, so disturbing, so dark - the 'call of the wild', the primitive that's veneered with civil society, but lives on. Billie Joe talks about revenge in the sense of being 'almost sexual' - the orgasm-spasm of love and hate - and I feel like this song is about dominance, about smiting anyone who threatens that dominance. He talks about the confluence of the music, and it's yeah, here is this place that exists beyond any culture - the place of 'stick it to 'em', uphold your pride, your manhood.

This song recognizes all of this, and sorrows for it - Christian explodes and Gloria suffers, Christian cries in the bathroom - and I just wanna bum a cigarette, so cynical, so get-over-yourself - so poignant, because all of Christian's rage is vulnerability. The dark and the lite, the rage and love crystallize in three words - 'all my love'. It speaks direct to 'Last Night On Earth' - that song so full of expressions of respect and honoring, and underneath it, brooding, 'this fire, and that desire'. The power of love, and where it's poured into - where it gets distorted and contorted, where it becomes dishonest and impure - where it becomes about possession and theft. When it comes to where justifying a spiritual aim is in obliterating opposing voices - when it comes to where cauterizing an emotional wound is wiping the cause of it from the face of the earth. Shut up - shut up.

I watched one of the Die Hard movies the other nite - doesn't really matter which, they're all the same. Simple, honest guy takes on the corporations and takes it back to where it was all simple, where it was about defending the homestead and saving the day. His woman is brought to the realization that the place where she thought she had power was just some kind of an illlusion, it all comes down to where she's clinging to him in gratitude. I have some kind of sympathy for that guy, just like I have sympathy for the peeps who yearn for when Green Day was rough and raw and singing about it - evolution's a bitch sometimes, yeah?

Yippy-kay-ay, motherfucker.

[Rae'n'shine]

I woke up this morning with Peacemaker stuck in my head and just found out it's the song of the week! I think I might be psychic.

[Bastard of 1967]

When it comes to where justifying a spiritual aim is in obliterating opposing voices - when it comes to where cauterizing an emotional wound is wiping the cause of it from the face of the earth. Shut up - shut up.

Oh...my...God, that is *so* it.

So do you think that this is a "sugarcoat nothing, just call it as I see it" commentary on internal rage that leads to outward expressions of brutality and violence in society, or is it more autobiographical -- perhaps a reflection/illumination of something that's going on more personally inside of Billie's own head? I think I'm more inclined to view it as a combination of the two, especially as Billie has aged, matured, and mellowed a bit. The turmoil is still in there, I think he's just expressing it differently than he did back in the raw, rough, caustic Insomniac days.

[theeulogy]

I couldn't stop listening to it when the album just came out!

Love the song

[anya.]

Probably, for me, the best song from 21st Century Breakdown.. but if I would never say it's one of the best songs from them, not at all..

[unexplainedbacon]

yet another brilliant song from a brilliant album.

[Xoram]

I've always been very fond of this song since the very first time I gave 21st Century Breakdown a spin, I remember it was the only song that strongly stuck on my head after that first listen, and now I know that it was because, musically, it's the most interesting song in the album. Because of this, it's not a song that cater's to purist Green Day fans, it's the equivalent to Warning's "Misery", and once again, a song that shows that Green Day is not afraid of doing things differently, as long as they do it their own way (I'd dare say Warning in it's entirety is an example of that).

With it's fast acoustic guitar, sweet bass line, and arousing beat alone, I consider it to be a very seductive song. But when you add the provoking lyrics into the mix, it becomes a song that's in it's entirety sexually driven. Without dwelling too much into Billie's state of mind or motives behind the writing of such a song, I'd say that I find this to be a soundtrack to every single person who's felt the burning desire of getting back at someone who you've loved, and has left you with a broken heart in return. The man depicted in the song is the one who comes back from the shadows of the past into the life of a former lover and says "If you're not mine, you'll be no one's". If you have watched Krzysztof Kieslowski's movie "Three Colors: White", you'll understand immediately what I'm talking about, and this film ,could very well be the inspiration behind the writing of the song. Another way of finding meaning in it, is to think of any serial murder in the history of mankind, persons who find pleasure in having another human being's life in their hands.

And one last thing I wanted to add, is how an amazing testament this song is to Billie Joe Armstrong's skill as a lyricist. I keep going through "Peacemaker" over and over and I'm unable to decide which lyric is my favorite. "For I am a Caesar/seizer, I'm going to seize the day", "So call me the assassin, the orgasm, a spasm of love and hate. For what will divide us? The righteous and the meek", and "I drink from the well of rage, I feed all the weakness with my love" are the ones that amaze me the most, and Billie's voice singing "Vendetta, sweet Vendetta, this Beretta of the night" sends chills through my spine, every single time I hear it.

Definitely one of my favorite Green Day's songs not only of 21st Century Breakdown, but of all time, and one I'm definitely looking forward to hear live at least once in my lifetime.

[east cc nowhere]

I love this song! Although its very hard to sing on GD Rockband (for me at least)

\

When I first learnt the lyrics to the song I felt very accomplished after I was able to sing along to the "well now the care takers..." part

I love this song. It's really interesting and caught my attention the first time I listened to it. It sounded to me like it could possibly belong on Warning, or from that time period. Everytime it comes on I immediately sing along to it. It's perfect for that.

I agree - i could see it with Misery! Ive always thought it would fit on nimrod as well

My favourite lyrics would have to be

"A molotov cocktails on the house" - love the play on words

"I drink from a well of rage" - fantastic symbolism

"i feed of the weakness with all my love" - the contradiciton

[koolkev]

Wierd intro, but it's a great song

[Zero.]

I love this song! It's so much fun to listen to, sing to, play to... and dance to... even though I can't dance

[justcause]

With it's fast acoustic guitar, sweet bass line, and arousing beat alone, I consider it to be a very seductive song. But when you add the provoking lyrics into the mix, it becomes a song that's in it's entirety sexually driven. Without dwelling too much into Billie's state of mind or motives behind the writing of such a song, I'd say that I find this to be a soundtrack to every single person who's felt the burning desire of getting back at someone who you've loved, and has left you with a broken heart in return. The man depicted in the song is the one who comes back from the shadows of the past into the life of a former lover and says "If you're not mine, you'll be no one's".

I think it's a very male song, it channels machismo - the 'girl at the end of the seranade' is a love-object, the 'love' conditional on reciprocation. Coming back to the link with Last Night On Earth, 'all my love', it juxtaposes the vision of love as something pure between two intact beings with the flawed passion that says 'I gave myself to you, now you owe me something'. What's in love is now in debt - it's crossed over to where the loss of this investment is the loss of pride, and it's unbearable, to the point where it becomes the opposite of love.