Nov 11, 2009
2 sad songs for Veteran’s Day. What are some others?
Like this post?
Tunes for today:
1. M. Ward’s “Requiem”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIMVxQy0mCU
2. Eric Bogle’s “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
(From the Current’s comments.)
What are your favorites?
* * * * *
This is a poor quality video, but it’s worth it to make it through the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wJCyX0w7E
Friendly Fire (No More Fight Left in Me)
Bill Mallonee
coming in for a few days my friend
yeah more than likely I’ll be alone
yeah I asked if she’d like to go
you know how she loves Chicago but she just said no
whatever she wants
whatever she might need
I’ve got no more fight in me
I must confess my own helplessness
things got pretty weird inside right after the war
I got kinda quiet for a long long long spell
they say war is hell but it ain’t nothing nothing like this
she just slams the door when I try to hold her
like I held on three nights at sea
I’ve got no more fight in me
mad dog bombardier hell I was mad dog all the time
I could drop that payload on a Roosevelt dime
but where we are there is no more north star
and it’s all dark and uncharted in our skies
kid the flak was so thick you could get out and walk on it
and that’s what I did right back to that little bride-to-be
but I’ve got no more fight in me
she says I’ve changed (funny thing)
don’t people change all the time?
it’s been twenty years or more Stan
since I had a good cry
Ashokan Farewell, especially when combined with the powerful letter of Sullivan Balou.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aj7Qh1Uu3w
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA, always makes me cry:
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just covering up
[chorus:]
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man
[chorus]
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said “Son don’t you understand”
[chorus]
I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go
I’m a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
You have to listen to him play it acoustic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XLeYMUZY4
And how about his version of “WAR”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DIp7ew_z8I
It doesn’t get much sadder or more angry than that.
One of my favorites has always been “Christmas in the Trenches” by John McCutcheon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9coPzDx6tA.
The Green Fields of France
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_zCTZDQ3Q
I love this one by the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.
DRIVE ON.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas8hbXhhh4
Every good Veteran’s Day song should have some sadness and some celebration. This has both. Thanks, John.
good song, sad to see that Johnny was to the point that he can’t remember the words to his own songs in this video. but a good man and a good song.
“Traveling Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks
“Snow Angel” by Over the Rhine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzLxkOrr9a4
If I may take a classical bent, Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings, op.11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRMz8fKkG2g
Excellent! I would add Bartok’s 6th string quartet to the “classical bent.”
Liking classical music doesn’t make you snooty. :)
Nope, being snooty makes you like classical music.
Kidding, kidding. :)
Yeah. There’s nothing snooty about the singer-songwriter if it has more than 3 chords you’re showing off purist types…
he…he… :)
Exactly. Singer-songwriters are always very humble and genuine.
OK. Last comment came off snooty. Didn’t mean it that way. I know very little about classical music. Just stumbled upon that piece years ago and have associated with sadness ever since. Truthfully, I think it was used in the movie Platoon and that’s what caused the connection …
Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Shenandoah.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmzAGoKHs44
Griffin House, “I Remember (It’s Happening Again)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJoT96xnRZ0
I can’t imagine a more stunning combination of battlefield and music than the scene at the end of the battle of Agincourt in Henry V –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXXuEel0fU.
“Let there be sung Non Nobis and Te Deum.”
Soundtrack from the movie Gettysburg:
http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B0000015H1
Thank you Abraham, I appreciated those videos.
Billy Joel, Goodnight Saigon
Thanks for the Bogel song. I knew only a different version of Waltzing Matilda and was scratching my head in confusion when I saw the song title with this post. Now I’m regretting not attending our local Veteran’s Day parade last weekend. Sigh.
Ryan Adams’ “Houses on the Hill” – short and brilliant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBPa_JzNWBg&feature=related
Come Home–One Republic w/ Sara Bareilles
Ricky Skaggs, “Seven Hillsides”.
The Grace a Preacher must have to preach such a sermon…
All night I’ve wrestled Jacob’s angels
And prayed with Matthew, Luke and John
Struggling to find the words to face the task
That comes upon the blood red dawn.
I’ve buried men before their time
Of alcohol and blackened lung
But how to bury seven of these
Appalachian miners sons.
Who stormed the beaches wave on wave,
And sailed home to these rocky graves
In family plots that bared their names.
Chorus:
Tomorrow I’ll walk up, seven hillsides
Tremble before my flock on seven hillsides
Seven sorrows, seven sons, seven mothers and every one
Will turn to me for the word of God, what does this mean?
And there I’ll stand good book in hand,
A shepherd to these precious lambs
What will I say, what will I say, what can I say?
To tell the truth I’d never thought much
About the will of God before.
Called to preach at seventeen
I was in love with fiery words and not much more.
The time has come to keep the faith
For others shattered by their loss.
Remind them of the loving God
Whose son like theirs paid the cost.
To save a sad and wicked world
Through sacrifice our love is heard
And pray that I believe those words.
Chorus:
Tomorrow I’ll walk up, seven hillsides
Tremble before my flock on seven hillsides
Seven sorrows, seven sons, seven mothers and every one
Will turn to me for the word of God, what does this mean?…
I’m a day late to the party, but here goes:
The Green Fields of France (Dropkick Murphys version) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9TDt3Ouo4
8th of November (Big & Rich) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7EPlqvMAfU
[...] positions–people who have, under God, preserved the way of life we enjoy.Abraham asked at his blog for suggestions of appropriate music for the day. I responded:I can’t imagine a more stunning [...]