Here’s an admirably po-faced fan-made video for a song I really enjoy. Even as a little kid, when you might expect me to connect most solidly with the fantasy-tinged heroism depicted in this song, I grokked it for the quietly brutal anti-war song it is. The contrast between the gentle grandeur of the music, with its troubadour acoustic guitar and celestial vocal harmonies, and the fact that they’re ultimately talking about this “lucky man” getting shot to death on the battlefield struck me as bracingly honest about how glorious these sorts of endeavors really are. Obviously that’s a lesson Tolkien prepared me for in this context, but still.
