On the eve of the 11th day of the 11th month...and one year before the 11th year

[thatcrazycajun]

The United States of America, by federal law and long tradition, sets aside two days each year to honor the men and women who have worn the uniforms of its armed services since its founding 234 years ago. The first—Memorial Day, the final Monday in May—is dedicated to those who gave their lives in service, so that they may never be forgotten. My father's late older brother, Ewell Leger (1926-1985, U.S. Army, Korean War) is one such. Terry Kelly came up with a far better musical tribute to them than I ever could, and I invite you to watch and listen to it here...and do as he asks if you can, when the hour arrives. (Thanks again, Sarge.)

The second is tomorrow. It began in 1919 as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I, and is shared with Mr. Kelly's homeland of Canada, and other member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. They now call it Remembrance Day; we Americans have known it since 1954 as Veterans' Day. But while Memorial Day remembers the honored dead, Veterans' Day is for honoring the living...those whom we know and love, who have our eternal gratitude, such as my older brother Damian (another Army vet) and my dear friends sffilk (Navy) and wcg (Marine Corps), as well as the many more we do not and will never know.

Most especially, it is for those still with us who bear the scars, wounds and losses of war, both visible outwardly and not—far too many of whom are lacking medical care they urgently need, jobs, food, clothing and even homes. This condition persists despite the government's handling of their needs having been elevated to a Cabinet-level federal department (over two decades ago...!!)—and is a scandal to and a shame on anyone with a love of this country and a conscience, or damned well ought to be. Even the newest members of this second group, those returning from recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan, are in many cases getting treatment far shabbier than their sacrifices have earned them.

So this year, I am once again here posting my own musical effort to honor both groups of those who served...and adding a second beneficiary to the suggested royalty donation: the United States Veterans Initiative, a group set up in 1993 to aid our veterans where their nation has failed them. USVI bills itself as "the nation’s largest non-profit provider of services to veterans facing challenges in their transition to civilian life." I hope you'll consider helping them help our vets, or help one of the many other such groups doing this work.

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
(Melody 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*
(Underlined/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

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
     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, notes double length)
And may there be... no future names... to carve on any... wall.

©1989 onward by Matt G. Leger. Any recording, performance or publication for profit requires payment of royalties per ASCAP/BMI standards, payable as a donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (www.thevirtualwall.org) and/or the United States Veterans Initiative (www.usvetsinc.org). All other uses freely permitted so long as this notice is retained unaltered.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

This is so beautiful. I've been hoping for a while that Tempered Glass could do a cover of this song; I have loved it since I first heard you sing it, not long after you wrote it in the first place. Is it okay if we do, and if so, is there any recording I could use to get the melody right and teach it to the others?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Oh, my stars and garters...I would be delighted and honored to have you and your group cover this or any of my songs. Such a request—particularly from ones who are actually better performers than I—are among the highest compliments an amateur songwriter like me can get. (That's an emphatic "Yes, you have my express permission and THANK YOU!" in case you need less subtlety and written documentation.) All I ask is that the instructions in the copyright notice be followed in the event any recording gets made and sold.

I do not know if any recording of me performing "NOTW" exists, as I've only sung it infrequently at conventions over the years. hms42 is probably the person to ask; he has more live con filk recordings than just about anyone I know (with the possible exceptions of Scott "Kludge" Dorsey, jslove and bedlamhouse).

If all else fails, I can either get sffilk to help me cut a recording of it for you or you can hear me do it live at GAFilk come January. If it's not in my concert set there (gorgeousgary and I are still hammering that out), I can and will make sure you hear it sometime during the weekend.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

We can't be at GaFilk, because it's too far away and we can't afford the travel. But if someone can record it there, and get us an MP3 of it, we could work from that?

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this lovely tribute and rebuke. My father served during the Korean War, although thankfully not in Korea. He was one of those men exposed to atomic blasts for research purposes (the Atomic Veterans) and then was sent to Greenland as support personnel for the top-secret (at the time) City under the Ice, an experimental outpost to see if we could bomb the USSR from there.

Just before his death a month ago, he got to see the proof pages for his friend Joe Boskin's book, "Corporal Boskin's Cold Cold War. (Syracuse University Press, 2011) It is dedicated to him and my mother and tells about their time in Greenland. I can't wait to read it.

I should post this in my own journal. (Goes off to cut and past...)