One last reminder: Don't forget our veterans today

[thatcrazycajun]

Today is the traditional date for Veterans' Day in the US and Remembrance Day in the UK and Canada. (Tomorrow, Monday the 12th, is the government-observed date under the Monday Holiday Act.) Take just two minutes at 11:00 AM, if you will, and observe a moment of silence to remember all those who have died in their country's unitorm...and not just our country's, either. If you need reminding why, watch this music video:
Terry Kelly's "A Pittance of Time"
And apropos of the day, my own original song in honor of those who are remembered forever on a black granite wall in Washington, DC...and their comrades in every other service, in war and peace:

NAMES UPON THE WALL
Music and lyrics by Matt G. Leger

  E                 E                A            A
Touch-ing down in Wash-ing-ton, in town to do a show
         B7              B7           A                   E
Thought I'd go out and look a-round, see the sights, you know
    E                  E            C#m              C#m
A gent-le breeze was blow-ing as I walked a-long the Mall
    F#m7           F#m7             B7            E
And in   a qui-et grove of trees I came upon the Wall
(Repeats each verse)

Line of people filing past, heads bowed and faces grave
Row after row of names and ranks into the stone engraved
Some stop to touch a name or two or lay a flag below
A few so young their father's name is all of him they know

Chorus /
        B7               B7                 E                     E
And it does-n't mat-ter what their age or where they fought the fight
     B7              B7                 E               E7      
It does-n't mat-ter an-y-more who was wrong or who was right;
       A                B7                  E       B7      C#m  /  F#7
*They all had ones who still with love and gent-le pain re-call*
     E                A               B7             E
*The man-y mem'-ries bound up in the names up-on the Wall*
(Starred lyric lines change w/ each repeat of chorus)

Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, wives and lovers too
Friends "in country" and back home, and people that they knew
From ev'ry walk of life they come, each race and creed that's known
But they're all the same when they come here to touch the cold black stone

Two men recall a comrade and the battles lost and won
A woman turns around in shock and whispers, "That's my son!"
Rough soldier's arms embrace her, tears stain a patch-filled sleeve
And strangers become family as in common bond they grieve

Repeat Chorus / *...They entered hell and gave their lives when they heard their country call
And now they live forevermore as names upon the Wall.*

Bridge:
       C#m            Am           A            E
   So many dead and wound-ed, so man-y left be-hind

       C#m                    Am                  F#7                  F#7
   But for those who made it back, death al-most would have been more kind

    A                   B7                 E               C#m
   Hat-ed, shunned and spat up-on, called mur-der-ers and worse

   F#7       F#7              A                 B7
   Is it any won-der that by mad-ness some are cursed?

The line streams ever onward still, endless pairs of feet
Before the stark reminder of our first taste of defeat
They put their small mementoes down, and all they take away
Is scraps of paper rubbed with names in lines of charcoal gray

(Key changes to G)
The Wall exerts its power ev'ry time we touch a name
We touch it and it touches us, and we're never quite the same
It stands for painful lessons learned, and peace made with the past
It stands for hope a nation can be whole again at last

Repeat Chorus / *...Black, red, yellow, white or brown, it matters not at all
Your mem'ry lives in honor if your name is on that Wall.*

Repeat Chorus /*...Down through all the years today, the sorrow touches all
(Capo to G)
    E                A               B7      B7      C#m  /  F#7
I sing my song for all of you whose names are on the Wall...*

(Repeat melody of last regular chorus line, stretching out notes at ellipses)
And may there be... no future names... to carve on any... wall.

©1989-present by Matt G. Leger. Any use for profit requires prior written consent and payment of royalties per ASCAP/BMI standards. Please donate any such royalties to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (www.vvmf.org) or to the Veterans Help Network (www.veteranshelp.com). All other uses freely permitted so long as this notice is retained unaltered.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Good song.... even better was what you did with the copyright. Well done, sir.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Touch a Name on the Wall, by Joel Mabus

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

You reminded me of a song by someone I used to know back before I moved from Lansing, Michigan in 1991; are you familiar with Joel Mabus's "Touch a Name on the Wall"?

Joel has his lyrics posted here: http://www.joelmabus.com/288_lyrics.htm

It's on his 1998 concert album, "The Naked Truth," available from either Joel's website or Elderly Instruments. (My copy is so old it's on vinyl, and I can't really play it any more.)

Judging from what I remember of the other songs on the album, I think you'd connect with most of them.

Re: Touch a Name on the Wall, by Joel Mabus

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I am indeed familiar with Mr. Mabus and his work; he wrote another of my favorites, "Warmer Every Day." And Dr. Demento actually has been known to play "Touch A Name on the Wall" on his annual Veterans' Day show now and again. But thanks for the links.