If I Had a Rocket Launcher
E559175
"If I Had a Rocket Launcher" is a politically charged 1984 protest song by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, inspired by his experiences witnessing civil conflict and refugee suffering in Central America.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| If I Had a Rocket Launcher canonical | 4 |
| If I Had a Rocket Launcher (live) | 1 |
| If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5962827 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: If I Had a Rocket Launcher Context triple: [Bruce Cockburn, notableWork, If I Had a Rocket Launcher]
-
A.
The Rocket
"The Rocket" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury that explores themes of dreams, poverty, and the power of imagination through a poor junkyard owner's attempt to give his family the experience of space travel.
-
B.
The Rocket
The Rocket is a 2005 film, also known as "The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard," that dramatizes the life and career of legendary Montreal Canadiens hockey player Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
-
C.
The Rocket
The Rocket was an early 19th-century steam locomotive designed by George Stephenson that became famous for winning the 1829 Rainhill Trials and proving the viability of railway transport.
-
D.
Chasing Rockets
"Chasing Rockets" is an instrumental cue from John Williams’ iconic 1978 Superman film score, accompanying one of the movie’s energetic action sequences.
-
E.
A Missive Missile
A Missive Missile is a section from the poetry collection "A Further Range" by Robert Frost, likely featuring his characteristic reflective and metaphorical verse.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: If I Had a Rocket Launcher Target entity description: "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" is a politically charged 1984 protest song by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, inspired by his experiences witnessing civil conflict and refugee suffering in Central America.
-
A.
The Rocket
"The Rocket" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury that explores themes of dreams, poverty, and the power of imagination through a poor junkyard owner's attempt to give his family the experience of space travel.
-
B.
The Rocket
The Rocket is a 2005 film, also known as "The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard," that dramatizes the life and career of legendary Montreal Canadiens hockey player Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
-
C.
The Rocket
The Rocket was an early 19th-century steam locomotive designed by George Stephenson that became famous for winning the 1829 Rainhill Trials and proving the viability of railway transport.
-
D.
Chasing Rockets
"Chasing Rockets" is an instrumental cue from John Williams’ iconic 1978 Superman film score, accompanying one of the movie’s energetic action sequences.
-
E.
A Missive Missile
A Missive Missile is a section from the poetry collection "A Further Range" by Robert Frost, likely featuring his characteristic reflective and metaphorical verse.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
single
ⓘ
song ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Canada ⓘ |
| creator | Bruce Cockburn ⓘ |
| describedAs |
angry and confrontational
ⓘ
politically charged ⓘ |
| firstReleaseRegion | Canada ⓘ |
| genre |
folk rock
ⓘ
political song ⓘ protest song ⓘ |
| hasArtistNationality | Canadian ⓘ |
| hasBSide | Nicaragua ⓘ |
| hasChorusLine |
If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die
ⓘ
linked to:
If I Had a Rocket Launcher
|
| hasInstrumentation |
bass guitar
ⓘ
drums ⓘ electric guitar ⓘ keyboards ⓘ |
| hasLength | approximately 4 minutes and 59 seconds ⓘ |
| hasLiveVersion |
If I Had a Rocket Launcher (live)
ⓘ
linked to:
If I Had a Rocket Launcher
|
| hasMusicVideo | If I Had a Rocket Launcher (music video) ⓘ |
| hasReception | critical acclaim for its political impact ⓘ |
| hasTimePeriod |
Cold War era
ⓘ
linked to:
Cold War
|
| hasTitle | If I Had a Rocket Launcher ⓘ |
| includedIn | Bruce Cockburn live performances ⓘ |
| inspiredBy |
Bruce Cockburn's visit to Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico
ⓘ
Central American civil wars ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| lyricsTheme |
civil conflict in Central America
ⓘ
military violence ⓘ political oppression ⓘ refugee suffering ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
human rights abuses
ⓘ
refugees ⓘ war ⓘ |
| notableFor |
controversial violent imagery in lyrics
ⓘ
explicit expression of anger at military oppression ⓘ |
| partOf | Bruce Cockburn discography ⓘ |
| partOfAlbum | Stealing Fire ⓘ |
| performer | Bruce Cockburn ⓘ |
| producer |
Bruce Cockburn
ⓘ
Jon Goldsmith ⓘ
linked to:
Jonathan Goldsmith
Kerry Crawford ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1984 ⓘ |
| recordingDate | 1983 ⓘ |
| recordLabel |
Gold Castle Records
ⓘ
True North Records ⓘ |
| releaseFormat |
7-inch single
ⓘ
album track ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: If I Had a Rocket Launcher Description of subject: "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" is a politically charged 1984 protest song by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, inspired by his experiences witnessing civil conflict and refugee suffering in Central America.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
If I Had a Rocket Launcher
→
hasChorusLine
→
If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die
ⓘ
linked to: If I Had a Rocket Launcher
linked to: If I Had a Rocket Launcher