Story Behind the Song
1st track on the album. In 1969 Kissinger and Nixon decided to bomb Cambodia, Vietnam's "Sideshow", in the false belief that Vietnamese troops were using the country for bases. The resulting devastation created the political landscape that allowed Pol Pot's brutal regime to take power. Between 1975 and 1979 an estimated 3 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge as Cambodian history started at year zero and the only authority was Angka.
Lyrics
angka
angka, the organisation.
crawl out of hospital on bloody stumps
what was once human into body dumps.
s21, number dead 16,000
drowned in a barrel or stung to death
bludgeoned to save bullets
year zero
ghost towns became a ghost country
to the fields or death
no past, no ties, no family
angka, massacre the intelligentsia
gang of six, pol pot clique
mighty shall inherit, forget the meek.
"no one smiles here"
youth corrupted year by year
angka, maoist heaven
15 year olds with ak47s
"roll up, roll up! welcome to the 'sideshow'!
pick your bomb from the menu"
what was started in '69 isn't over and will last all time
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