"The General" is a song by the

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...

band Dispatch. It appeared on their 1997 album ''

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'' and became one of the group's most well-known songs.

Composition

This song, written by Chadwick Stokes, tells a story about a brilliant and battle-torn 19th century general, who has a dream in which he realizes the futility of the war he is fighting. In ''The Best of Dispatch'', a book containing guitar and voice transcriptions of selected Dispatch songs,

Chad Urmston Chad (Chadwick) Stokes Urmston (born February 26, 1976) is an American musician and a human rights activist. He is the frontman for the Boston-area bands Dispatch and State Radio, and released solo music under the name Chadwick Stokes. Early ...

describes "The General":

Formats

The song has appeared in multiple formats, including its original version on the album ''

'', as well as multiple live versions on their albums '' Gut the Van'', ''

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'' and, most recently, '' Dispatch: Zimbabwe''. In the Madison Square Garden format, the song features several instruments including the trumpet, saxophone, and trombone, an addition never before featured in the song. At New York City's

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

in 2012, during the band's

Circles Around the Sun ''Circles Around the Sun'' is a 2012 album by United States Indie rock, indie/American folk music, roots folk band Dispatch (band), Dispatch. It is their fifth full-length studio album, the first recorded in over a decade. Speaking with Songfact ...

tour, the song was performed with a verse from

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In the same ye ...

's "

99 Red Balloons "99 Luftballons" (german: link=no, Neunundneunzig Luftballons, "99 balloons") is a song by the German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons", with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also relea ...

" in the inserted bridge. This, presumably, to add new character to the band's anti-war message.

Russian version

The band released a Russian language version in April 2022 in response to the

war in Ukraine The following is a list of major conflicts fought by Ukraine, by Ukrainian people or by regular armies during periods when independent states existed on the modern territory of Ukraine, from the Kyivan Rus' times to the present day. It also i ...

, with proceeds from streaming going toward the Leleka Foundation. Olga Berg, a friend of a friend of Stokes, translated the original lyrics into Russian. The re-recording was a gesture of solidarity with Russians against their country's involvement in the war.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:General (song), The Songs about the military Songs about military officers 1998 songs Anti-war songs Dispatch (band) songs

Composition

Formats

Russian version

See also

References