When the War Came
The Decemberists * Track #6 On The Crane Wife
Download "When the War Came"
Album The Crane Wife
- #1The Crane Wife 3
The Decemberists
- #2The Island: Come and See; The Landlord’s Daughter; You’ll Not Feel the Drowning
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- #3Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
The Decemberists & Laura Veirs
- #4O Valencia!
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- #5
The Perfect Crime #2The Decemberists
- #6When the War Came
The Decemberists
- #7Shankill Butchers
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- #8Summersong
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- #9The Crane Wife 1 & 2
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- #10Sons and Daughters
The Decemberists
When the War Came by The Decemberists
Release Date
Performed by
The DecemberistsProduced by
Tucker Martine & Chris WallaWrited by
Colin MeloyAbout
The song is the sixth track off the Decemberist album ‘Crane Wife’. It was inspired by actual events that happened in Russia during WWII and a book that told the story of botanist who protected the botanical institutes seeds and plants from the starving population of Leningrad during it’s siege.
When the War Came Lyrics
With all the grain of Babylon
To cultivate, to make us strong
And hidden here behind the walls
Are shoulders wide and timber on
'Til the war came
'Til the war came
A terrible autonomy
Has grafted onto you and me
Our trust put in the government
They told their lies as heaven-sent
'Til the war came
'Til the war came
[Chorus]
And the war came with a curse and a caterwaul
And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight
When the war came, the war came hard
We made our oath to Vavilov
We'd not betray the solanum
The acres of asteraceae
To our own pangs of starvation
When the war came
When the war came
[Chorus]
With all the grain of Babylon
With all the grain of Babylon...
When the War Came Q&A
Who wrote When the War Came's ?
When the War Came was written by Colin Meloy.
Who produced When the War Came's ?
When the War Came was produced by Tucker Martine & Chris Walla.
When did The Decemberists release When the War Came?
The Decemberists released When the War Came on Tue Oct 03 2006.
What did The Decemberists say about "When the War Came"?
Colin Meloy told Pitchfork: “After reading the book (Hunger by Elise Blackwell), and starting to work on the song, it didn’t even occur to me that "When the War Came” could mean anything other than what it was, the inner monologue of a botanist at an institute in Leningrad. But then immediately whe...