Singing In Vietnam Talking Blues

Intro:

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One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife,
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"We've been ev'rywhere once and some places twice."
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As I had another helping of country ham, she said,
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     "We ain't never been to Vietnam,
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And there's a bunch of our boys over there."
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So       we went to the Orient,     Saigon.

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Well, we got a big welcome when we drove in
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To the gates of a place that they call Long Ben.
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We checked in and ev'rything got kind of quiet.
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But a soldier boy said, "Just wait till tonight.
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Things get noisy, things start happenin'.
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Big, bad firecrackers."

                 G
Well, that night we did about four shows for the boys
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And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise.
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We did our last song for the night
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And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet.
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But things weren't peaceful and things weren't      quiet.
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Things were      scary.

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Well, for a few minutes, June never said one word,
          C
And I     thought at first that she hadn't heard.
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Then a shell exploded not two miles away.
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She sat up in bed and I heard her say,
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"What was that?" I said, "That was a shell    or a bomb."
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She said, "I'm scared." I said, "Me too".

         G
Well, all night long that noise kept on,
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And the sound would chill you right to the bone.
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The bullets and the bombs and the mortar shells
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      Shook our bed ev'ry time one fell and it never let up.
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It was gonna get worse     before it got any better.

                         G
Well, when the sun came up, the noise died down.
               C
We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound.
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Then a soldier knocked on our door and said,
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Last night they brought in 7 dead and 14 wounded.
                                    C
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And would we come down to the base hospital and see the boys.        Yeah.

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So, we went to the hospital ward by day
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     And ev'ry night we were singin' away.
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Then the shells and the bombs till dawn again,
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And the helicopters brought in the wounded men.
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Night after night, day after day, comin' and goin'.

            G
So, we sadly sang for them our last song
C
     And reluctantly we said, "So long."
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We did our best to let 'em know that we care
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For ev'ry last one of  'em that's over there.
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Wether we belong over there or not,
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Somebody over here loves 'em and needs 'em.

                   G
Well, now, that's about all that there is to tell
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About that little trip into livin' hell.
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And if  I ever go back over there anymore,
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I hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for.
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I hope that war is over with
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And they all come back home to stay           in peace.