Civil War

Album: The Good Parts (2017)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This was one of the easiest songs that Andy Grammer has ever written. He told Billboard:

    "I'd already written a song that day, after writing on the bus, I went up to the hotel and laid down - and this idea just started tapping on my head. I think I might have actually said it out loud, like, 'I don't want to! I've already done it today.' And it just wouldn't leave, so I just like sat on my bed and wrote a song in - it probably took me about 40 minutes. It's such a sweet, sweet song. That doesn't happen very often."
  • Andy Grammer is a member of the Bahá'í Faith, which sees God as a single, personal, inaccessible, omnipresent creator of all things in the universe. Here, he questions the Almighty as to why humans can't stop doing bad.

    Why you put good into my heart
    Then tease me with evil since the day I was born?
    Guilty and confused, I ripped myself apart
    When you always knew I'd be a civil war


    He explained: "That one to me is a really sweet kind of argument with God about, 'You created me, and if you knew while you were creating me that I was gonna be a civil war between being a good person and having bad tendencies, why? Why did you have to make me that way?' And it's such a sweet, simple idea."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee JonesSongwriter Interviews

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.

Mac Powell of Third Day

Mac Powell of Third DaySongwriter Interviews

The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.