Tim asked about the meaning behind the Alarm's "68 Guns", which his youngen
has taken a liking to singing...

I remembered something about the song being the story of turn of the century
gangs in Ireland, but the following bit comes from the Alarm's website

"Sixty Eight Guns" told the story of a youth gang in 1968 trying to etch out
an existence in the increasingly bleak surroundings of North Wales. It was
inspired by a book Mike Peters had read about Irish street gangs, but, much
like "The Stand", he twisted the lyrics to fit his own situation. "Sixty
Eight Guns" was about Mike Peters and his own friends, and it became the
first Alarm song to deal with friendship, a theme the band would return to
often.

You can tell your wife it's about friendship, not fighting. But I'll doubt
she'll buy that. In college I had a friend who was called into his son's
school after the boy sang the Cure's "Killing An Arab" in front of the
class.

Dale

PS - Can somebody help me with a song meaning? Tommy James' "Hanky Panky"
has stumped me for ages.

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