Empires © 2018 Don Nelson by Don Nelson 1
This is one I just wrote and recorded recently – I’d had the percussion loop hanging around for a little while and started thinking about that saying about Afghanistan “Where Empires Go To Die” – and the song grew from that. It is weird – from the British in the 1800’s to the Russians in the 1980’s to Alexander The Great back in 300 BC to more recent times… legions of humanity go rolling through the same trade routes, plateaus and high passes – conquering and being conquered… and nothing much really changes. But even though the song name-checks Afghanistan, it’s not REALLY about a particular time or place – it’s more about the endless relentlessly futile wars we have all engaged in over the centuries… until even the mountains are made of skulls and bones… Yes – another upbeat tune!
PS – the picture I used is actually of Mt Nemrut in Turkey – it just seemed like an appropriate image of ruined dynasties.
Empires © 2018 Don Nelson
Living on the edge of a dangerous land
Somewhere in Afghanistan
Only dead men call this home
Even the mountains are made of skulls and bones
No Conqueror has long survived
Not even when Alexander tried
This is where empires go to die…

Last night I found a moldering grave
It was a dead Russian soldier from ‘88
Next to him was some British bloke
Holding an Enfield musket to his bloody red coat
From the Hindu Kush to the Khyber Pass
Dust to dust nothing lasts
The centuries go rolling by
This is where empires go to die…

My old life has disappeared
I wonder if I’ll ever get out of here
Be a soldier of fortune or the Taliban
You never really leave Afghanistan

Gods and generals make their plans
To conquer the clouds – the rocks and sand
With Opium and Genocide
This is where empires go to die

Hanging by a thread in a nightmare land
Somewhere in Afghanistan
Kings and Queens will not survive
Even when Alexander tried
But this is where empires go to die…