Also....
Thread #17791 Message #2812469
Posted By: Joe Offer
15-Jan-10 - 06:07 AM
Thread Name: Songs About Vietnam Part II
Subject: ADD: Sitting in the Cab of My Truck (Dockery?)
Well, here's what I hear on the "In Country" album:
SITTING IN THE CAB OF MY TRUCK
(Chip Dockery)
(Parody of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay)
Hiding in the morning sun, I'll be driving in the evening calm,
Watching the Phantoms roll in, and I watch them pull away again;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, thinking this life ain't such a game;
Sitting in the cab of my truck, filing my chains.
I left my home in Dong Hoi, headed for the DMZ,
Well, I had something to live for, a Peoples' Hero I was gonna be;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, looking through the windshield at flare-lighted rain;
Sitting in the cab of my truck, yankin' my chains.
[bridge]
Here I sit, having a nicotine fit - God, I'm too scared to get a cigarette lit;
'Cause that might just blow my only hope of not showing up on a starlight (?) scope.
Well, sitting here with britches so tight, 'cause I think that 'spector's (inspector's?) due back tonight;
Bleeding from my ears and my nose, from a Sky Spot (?) that finally came close;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, watching the bombs fall through the rain,
Sitting in the cab of my truck, filing my chains.
[whistle]
(Sung by Chip Dockery on the "In Country" album - transcribed by ear) Notes from the album: Another song by Chip Dockery about the North Vietnamese truck drivers on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Sometimes, especially late in the war, the drivers were chained to the steering wheel of their trucks, thus linking the fate of the vehicle and the driver.
This page has clips from this and several other songs from the "In Country" album.
This page has longer clips (click).
This song didn't make sense to me until I read that it was from the perspective of North Vietnamese truck drivers. I'd don't know what a "sky spot" or "starlight scope" is, so I'm not sure I have those words right.
-Joe-Joe, a starlight scope was a light gathering scope we used for night ops in 'Nam. It would magnify available light by about a 1000 times, so that a lit cigarette would give away your position. These things were bulky as hell, required moonlight or a source of light, but effective enough. All the best, Mick