DBT tracks- week # 68 - The War Songs

[Clams]

Well with the 9/11 anniversary approaching, we might as well tackle these three. Forgive me for lumping them toegther, but the timing is right because without 9/11 to get the ball rolling, none of them would probably exist:

The Home Front
That Man I Shot
Dress Blues

Each is told from a different person's perspective: The Home Front from the bitch slapped war mom/spouse; Man I Shot from the PTSD-riddled vet; Dress Blues from someone (maybe a loved one, maybe not) watching a young vet's funeral. Like most Trucker songs, each one well has much more than a kernel of truth. The Home Front is pure anger, Dress Blues tugs at the heart strings, while Man I Shot (turn it up LOUD) blisters like anything the Truckers have ever recorded.



THAT MAN I SHOT

That man I shot, He was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me He was trying to kill me
That man I shot I didn't know him
I was just doing my job, maybe so was he

That man I shot, I was in his homeland
I was there to help him but he didn't want me there
I did not hate him, I still don't hate him
He was trying to kill me and I had to take him down

That man I shot, I still can see him
When I should be sleeping, tossing and turning
He's looking at me, eyes looking through me
Break out in cold sweats when I see him standing there

That man I shot, shot not in anger
There's no denying it was in self-defense
But when I close my eyes, I still can see him
I feel his last breath in the calm dead of night

That man I shot, He was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me, He was trying to kill me
Sometimes I wonder if I should be there?
I hold my little ones until he disappears

I hold my little ones until he disappears
I hold my little ones until we disappear
And I'm not crazy or at least I never was
But there's this big thing that can't get rid of

That man I shot did he have little ones
That he was so proud of that he won't see grow up?
Was walking down his street, maybe I was in his yard
Was trying to do good I just don't understand

THE HOME FRONT
The hours creep across the face
As she paces across the floor
She can't even get to sleep since Tony went to war
She feels bitchslapped and abandoned
By a world she thought she knew
Cold beyond comprehension as their little girl turns two

Now they're saying on the flat screen
They ain't found a reason yet
We're all bogged down in a quagmire
And there ain't no end to it
No Nine Eleven or Uranium to pin the bullshit on
She's left standing on the home front
The two of them alone


DRESS BLUES
What can you see from your window?
I can't see anything from mine.
Flags on the side of the highway
and scripture on grocery store signs.
Maybe eighteen was too early.
Maybe thirty or forty is too.
Did you get your chance to make peace with the man
before he sent down his angels for you?

Mamas and grandmamas love you
'cause that's all they know how to do.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Your wife said this all would be funny
when you came back home in a week.
You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you
in a bar or a tent by the creek.
Your baby would just about be here.
Your very last tour would be up
but you won't be back. They're all dressing in black
drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

Mamas and grandmamas love you.
American boys hate to lose.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Now the high school gymnasium's ready,
full of flowers and old legionnaires.
Nobody showed up to protest,
just sniffle and stare.
But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters
and there's silent old men from the corps.
What did they say when they shipped you away
to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Nobody here could forget you.
You showed us what we had to lose.
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.

No, no you never planned on the bombs in the sand
or sleeping in your dress blues.


As for Dress Blues, I was gonna post the "He Was a Marine" version from Stubbs but we've all seen that one. This one's less polished but, coming straight out of Afghanistan, it packs just as much of a punch...

[bovine knievel]

thumbs up

[redstains]

i love all these -- the picture of war that they paint is real and unflinching, not sensationalized or dramatized -- and they remain relevant today. dress blues is as powerful a song about war as i can imagine -- it floored me the first time i ever heard it and still does today. the story behind it is even more of a tear jerker.

as long as we're including an isbell song on here--which is entirely appropriate i'd say--we might as well mention 'tour of duty,' which i feel has the same spirit as 'dress blues.' the guy in dress blues could be the guy in tour of duty were it not for those bombs in the sand. lucky for him he was able to make it through alive and now he can feast on oysters by the pail and put his woman in a family way and try to do what a civilian does. try cause hell, he don't know how really. it's taken all he had just to get back home alive. while it's much more optimistic than the other three songs, and you could even picture a picnic in there, there will always be an underlying current of war. the narrator is happy as hell to be home alive with his woman, and the song is happy for him, but he hasn't forgotten all the work they did in vain, and he's not the same as he was. the song is light and happy because it is a reunion, it is short and bittersweet because the war will never leave him, even if he aint leaving here again.

the sands of iwo jima also provides another view of another war, but it aint all that different. perhaps the narrator of tour of duty grows up to tell his grandkid he never saw liam neeson on the sands of iraq.

ray's automatic weapon also shows how war never leaves.

and their decision to record mama bake a pie when they did is no coincidence either.

no matter what the war or what the theme, dbt does not shy away from the harsh realities of this world, including that of war and its effects. these stories are among the most vivid they tell, and are heartbreaking for it.

thank you for bringing them to our attention again at this time.

[Clams]

i love all these -- the picture of war that they paint is real and unflinching, not sensationalized or dramatized -- and they remain relevant today. dress blues is as powerful a song about war as i can imagine -- it floored me the first time i ever heard it and still does today. the story behind it is even more of a tear jerker.

as long as we're including an isbell song on here--which is entirely appropriate i'd say--we might as well mention 'tour of duty,' which i feel has the same spirit as 'dress blues.' the guy in dress blues could be the guy in tour of duty were it not for those bombs in the sand. lucky for him he was able to make it through alive and now he can feast on oysters by the pail and put his woman in a family way and try to do what a civilian does. try cause hell, he don't know how really. it's taken all he had just to get back home alive. while it's much more optimistic than the other three songs, and you could even picture a picnic in there, there will always be an underlying current of war. the narrator is happy as hell to be home alive with his woman, and the song is happy for him, but he hasn't forgotten all the work they did in vain, and he's not the same as he was. the song is light and happy because it is a reunion, it is short and bittersweet because the war will never leave him, even if he aint leaving here again.

the sands of iwo jima also provides another view of another war, but it aint all that different. perhaps the narrator of tour of duty grows up to tell his grandkid he never saw liam neeson on the sands of iraq.

ray's automatic weapon also shows how war never leaves.

and their decision to record mama bake a pie when they did is no coincidence either.

no matter what the war or what the theme, dbt does not shy away from the harsh realities of this world, including that of war and its effects. these stories are among the most vivid they tell, and are heartbreaking for it.

thank you for bringing them to our attention again at this time.

Outstanding post, Redstains. I included Dress Blues in this thread because it was originally performed as a Truckers song at Trucker shows. But by all means, feel free to discuss Tour of Duty (or Soldiers Get Strange) or any of the other songs you mentioned.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

"That Man I Shot" gets a mention in this post from the Large Hearted Boy blog in reference to George Pelecanos' latest book, The Cut:

"That Man I Shot," Drive-By Truckers

Patterson Hood's raging vet anthem, from Brighter Than Creation's Dark, is a deep look into a soldier's psyche and a stark reminder of the lasting cost of war. While this tune is never mentioned in the book, I imagined it was in heavy rotation in Spero Lucas's head. Another classic from the American band of the past decade.

[Gang Green]

"That Man I Shot" gets a mention in this post from the Large Hearted Boy blog in reference to George Pelecanos' latest book, The Cut:

"That Man I Shot," Drive-By Truckers

Patterson Hood's raging vet anthem, from Brighter Than Creation's Dark, is a deep look into a soldier's psyche and a stark reminder of the lasting cost of war. While this tune is never mentioned in the book, I imagined it was in heavy rotation in Spero Lucas's head. Another classic from the American band of the past decade.

I've read just about all of George Pelecanos' books except for a few of the early ones and the latest, "The Cut". He loves DBT, and, at one point calls them the best band in America today on his website when he reviews Southern Rock Opera. In fact, it was because of George Pelecanos, I ramped-up my DBT listening. Of course, the reason I read George Pelecanos was because he was one of the writers in the "Wire".

[Gang Green]

Ooops! Don't forget Sands of Iwa Jima.

[beantownbubba]

"That Man I Shot" gets a mention in this post from the Large Hearted Boy blog in reference to George Pelecanos' latest book, The Cut:

"That Man I Shot," Drive-By Truckers

Patterson Hood's raging vet anthem, from Brighter Than Creation's Dark, is a deep look into a soldier's psyche and a stark reminder of the lasting cost of war. While this tune is never mentioned in the book, I imagined it was in heavy rotation in Spero Lucas's head. Another classic from the American band of the past decade.

I've read just about all of George Pelecanos' books except for a few of the early ones and the latest, "The Cut". He loves DBT, and, at one point calls them the best band in America today on his website when he reviews Southern Rock Opera. In fact, it was because of George Pelecanos, I ramped-up my DBT listening. Of course, the reason I read George Pelecanos was because he was one of the writers in the "Wire".

I think the early ones are the best ones (haven't read The Cut yet but it's sitting here practically crying out to be opened, i'm just letting the anticipation build). Pelecanos knows his music for sure, it's always been one of the subtle elements of his writing to savor. One of the reasons I started to watch the Wire was because I found out that Pelecanos was one of the writers

[dogstar]

'That Man I SHot' is one of my favourite Patterson songs. I love the fact that it doesn't really 'belong' among the other tunes on BTCD. I love the fact that when the riff kicks in at the start all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up (only this and Tornados from the DBT canon do this for me). I hadn't really noticed the words until a few months ago - I go more for the way things sound than the words - but my good lady asked me what the song was about and I had to have a proper listen. Once I'd listened to the words properly I got a better feel for why the music sounds so full of 'rage'.

[Gang Green]

I think the early ones are the best ones (haven't read The Cut yet but it's sitting here practically crying out to be opened, i'm just letting the anticipation build). Pelecanos knows his music for sure, it's always been one of the subtle elements of his writing to savor. One of the reasons I started to watch the Wire was because I found out that Pelecanos was one of the writers [/quote]

Yes, you're right about the music. Also, I lived in DC and around for 15 years, and he goes into detail about places I've lived, worked and hung-out which is something I savor in his books. It was the Wire for me first then George Pelecanos. Either way, I call it my Wire DBT connect.

[sactochris]

What about Ray's Automatic Weapon?

[beantownbubba]

I think the early ones are the best ones (haven't read The Cut yet but it's sitting here practically crying out to be opened, i'm just letting the anticipation build). Pelecanos knows his music for sure, it's always been one of the subtle elements of his writing to savor. One of the reasons I started to watch the Wire was because I found out that Pelecanos was one of the writers

Yes, you're right about the music. Also, I lived in DC and around for 15 years, and he goes into detail about places I've lived, worked and hung-out which is something I savor in his books. It was the Wire for me first then George Pelecanos. Either way, I call it my Wire DBT connect.[/quote]

See the And I Quote thread I just started.