I left my heart to the sappers 'round Khe Sahn
And I sold my soul with my cigarettes, to a black market man
I've had to Vietnam cold turkey, from the ocean to the silver city
And it's only other vets could understa-and
'Bout the long forgotten dockside guarantees
How there were no V-day heroes in nineteen seventy-three
How we sailed into Sydney Harbour, I saw an old friend but I couldn't kiss her
And she was lined, and I was home to the lucky land
She was like so many more from that time on
Their lives were all so empty, until they'd found there chosen one
And their legs were often open but their minds were always closed
And their hearts were held in fast suburban chains
And the legal pads were yellow, hours long paypackets lean
And the telex writers clattered where the gunships once had been
The carparks made me jumpy and I never stopped the dreams
Or the growing need for speed and novacaine
So I worked across the country from end to end
I tried to find a place to settle down, where my mixed up life could mend
I held a job on an oil-rig, a-flyin' choppers when I could
But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend
And I've travelled round the world from year to year-ear-ear
And each one found me aimless, one more year the worse for wear
And I've been back to South East Asia, you know the answer sure ain't there
But I'm driftin' north to check things out agai-ai-ain
Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost go-one
And only seven flyin' hours, till I'll be landin' in Hong Kong
And there ain't nothin' like the kisses from a jaded Chinese princess
I'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night lo-ong
Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone-aca [ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/cold_chisel/khe_sahn.html ]
Please input the reason why these lyrics are bad: [x]
Khe Sahn lyrics
meanings:
by Unregistered on Feb 10th 2012 6:55 pm
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Nostalgia for things experienced which others cannot understand; recklessness of youth.
by Unregistered on Feb 8th 2012 6:36 pm
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Cletrac, mate on behalf of every "true" aussie thank you. Still a few of us who wear the flag over our hearts.
by Unregistered on Dec 7th 2011 2:04 pm
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The song was written in tribute to barnseys son partyls as he was a vietnam war vet.
by Unregistered on Dec 4th 2011 5:13 pm
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I think even more than that the song shares the writers disgust at the way the vietnam war vets were treated upon their return to australia. Best summed up in the line "there were no v-day heroes in 1973". It talks about how societies attitude had changed to war showing a lack of appreciation to what those men had done or tried to do (regardless of what ur particular attitude to war is ) and how vets had to struggle with their own war experiences without the support of society, resorting to drugs and prositution to deal with the memories and loneliness
by Unregistered on Nov 25th 2011 8:14 am
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Agreeed with u it. Tells the sory of a vietnam war and coming hoome to proud australia
by Unregistered on Nov 13th 2011 10:57 pm
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@cletrac - if you mean offensive in the sense of sexual or drug explication, then it would be definitely deemed so. Just look at the last lines of the last verse: "and there ain't nothin' like the kisses from a jaded chinese princess
I'm gonna hit some hong kong mattress all night lo-ong". This is clearly allusion to prostitution, which was indeed a substantial part of many wars when the men went on leave.
by Unregistered on Nov 13th 2011 2:50 am
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And a sapper is another name for an australian combat engineer.
Words of khe sanh were never offensive. If you listen to the lyrics, it tells the story of the vietnam war, and life after returning to australia reference to silver city, in the lyrics, was the b wing igloo accommadation barracks at kapooka, nsw. Reference to "last plane out of sydney is almost gone". At midnight every wednesday night, was a qantas 707, bound for siagon, vietnam, via darwin and singapore, with replacement troops for support units in vietnam. How do i know. I did my recruit training at kapooka, and lived in silver city. Flew out of sydney midnight, 23 august 1970, bound for nui dat, posted to 104 sig sqn, on that qantas flight, sailed into sydney harbour aboard hmas sydney, november 1971