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Daily Lyric: BACKLASH

Updated: Apr 2

Listen all you punks who think you can get away with murder

Making us easy targets for your hate

Taking full advantage of our respect for law and order

Well there’s just so much that decent folks can take

We exercised restraint while you threw your rocks at us

All this time we stopped short of declaring war

We sat still while you firebombed every car and bus

Well now we won’t sit quiet anymore


We played the patsy for so long we paid too high a cost

Now we’ll show you who’s boss


Backlash! No more complacence

Backlash! We’ve lost our patience

Backlash! We’ll give the commands now

Backlash! The law is in our hands now


Listen all you bleeding hearts soaked in your self pity

You’re destroying us with your guilty conscience rap

It’s all too easy to pass your judgment while locked up in the city

We’ve had enough of listening to your crap

Listen all you journalists and agents of the press

Your twisted news has made us all sick

We’ve had enough of your calling us the creators of this mess

So take your cameras and get yourselves lost quick


We’ve had it up to here with your causing us to play the fools

Now we’ll play by our own rules


Backlash! You can only go so far

Backlash! Who do you think you are?!?

Backlash! It’s time to put you in your place

Backlash! Throw all your mud back in your face


Listen all you bigwigs and potbellied brass

The way you handle this trouble is a joke

The road to our home is lined with burnt cars and broken glass

Where are you when our whole lives go up in smoke

You worry too much about how you’ll look on TV

And the whole world’s opinion is your fear

Well throw your ego out for once before we’re pushed into the sea

And start doing something for those of us out here


If you’re not gonna protect us we’re gonna protect ourselves

Throw your crazy orders to hell


Backlash! No more complacence

Backlash! We’ve lost our patience

Backlash! We’ll give the commands now

Backlash! The law is in our hands now


©2023 The Hesh Inc.

Detail of "Backlash" - original AI art by The Hesh Inc.
Generic image of flames, because I didn't want to exploit the violence in Israel happening at the time of posting for the purposes of promoting myself.

This was written during the worst times of the first intifada in 1988, when I and most of my fellow Jews in Israel were angry and frustrated with the rioters, the press, and the government—the rioters for their hatred and violence, the press (foreign and domestic) for its intentional distortion and misrepresentation of the facts, and the government for its timidity and ineptitude at handling the whole situation. The chorus was, in fact, a call for those directly impacted by all these to take matters into their own hands. Being that I was in the army at the time, I could have landed in a whole lot of trouble had this been published or released.


These lyrics can apply equally to the war and violence in Israel today as I write this. Since I am not subject to military discipline at this point, I'm putting it out there, and let everyone take it as they will.


Musically, the biggest influence here would have to be Van Halen's "Atomic Punk." As implied above, this song was never released, recorded, or performed.

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