Song Parodies -> "Like a Rolling Stone - Bosnia 1995 Edition"

Original Song Title:

"Like a Rolling Stone"

^(MP3)

Original Performer:

Bob Dylan

Parody Song Title:

"Like a Rolling Stone - Bosnia 1995 Edition"

Parody Written by:

Valshif

The Lyrics

This is a 1995 update of the Dylan song that I came up with, out of the anger of watching ethnic cleansing unfold that year. Though it's bitter, it's directed at those leaders who misled and manipulated their peoples - not at Serbs, Croats, or Bosnians in general. The Dylan chorus was too good to remove.Bitter as this song is, one should wish the best for all citizens of the former and current Yugoslavia in putting that horrible war behind them.

Once upon a time you fought so fine
Called your neighbor swine, made them cry
Didn't you?
People said that's no good
You thought they was all
Kiddin' you

You used to laugh about
Everyone you was driving out
Now you don't laugh so loud
And you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Swiped the finest goods all right Mr. Ratko
All your fighters running round smoking it
Nobody ever taught you the Geneva rules
And you never tried to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the UN, but now you realize
They ain't selling any alibis
As you point your AKs to the skies
And say do you want to make a deal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns in the cities and the towns
When they ran away from you
Never understood that it ain't no good, that they'd come back one day for you
You used to hang around with Slobodan's diplomat
Who carried on his shoulders a Serbian rat
Ain't it hard when you uncover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After gave away everything you could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
All you ethnic cleansers, all you Arkan types are drinkin' thinkin' they got it made
exchanging all kinds of loot; you better take the family tank - you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At the Bosnians in rags and the weapons that they used. Go to them now, they call you, you can't refuse
When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose
You're barbarians now, you have no secrets to reveal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

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Paul Robinson - July 11, 2005 - Report this comment

Interesting use of the OS...I really have mixed feelings about this in different ways...as a parody writer/reader I would have liked to have seen more changes from the OS lyrics, even with your note as to why you left them in. The rest of the writing is pretty good...but the subject is so very unpleasant...we still see too much of this type of mass barbarism is the world...shocking in any context, particularly from peoples that in many cases were at one time neighbors who got along somehow and then ended up slaughtering those neighbors during these episodes...I absorbed what you said...but I don't feel like trying to grade this...either bad or good...but I do appreciate your effort to make a sincere, honest commentary on this awful topic.

MrMacphisto - July 11, 2005 - Report this comment

This is one of the better serious parodies I've read on this site. Good job. 5,5,5

Yet Another Dutchman - July 12, 2005 - Report this comment

Great lyrical criticism, Valshif. I must apologize for the Dutch soldiers "not being able" to protect muslims from a near-genocide (Srebrenica). My government refuses to apologize.

Valshif - July 14, 2005 - Report this comment

Thanks to all. To Paul Robinson: I should say that I totally understand and share your ambivalence - both the retention of the original chorus and the bitterness of it. It seemed like something worth putting forth, but I thought posting it was worth a shot. To Yet Another Dutchman: I hadn't heard about the apology issue. The best book I've read on Srebrenica - Endgame by David Rohde - seems sympathetic to the dilemma faced by the Dutch troops, outgunned and outnumbered with an impossible mission. I don't recall how critical Rohde was of their officers, but he seemed to lay the most serious criticism on the UN command for putting them in that mess. Food for thought.

Paul Robinson - July 15, 2005 - Report this comment

Glad you understand, by no means was I knocking your work, Valshif...by the way...in fact, it IS important that people write and discuss these things...otherwise they tend to pass under the radar of most people...and I occasionally write to serious issues myself...although not to mass genocide as of yet...not sure I can muster up any sort of "touch" that might make it come out palatably.

Yet Another Dutchman - July 23, 2005 - Report this comment

Got myself updated, my comment was born out of ignorance. I stand corrected.

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