Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier

Subject: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Tyghress
Date: 25 May 03 - 06:45 PM

I'm a bit angry with myself that I lost the words to this haunting song... Can anyone help? I remember scraps of it..."Lay on Lincoln's bier, the unknown one.....And the railsplitter's words will echo throughout the land, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, fifes and drums and marching bands, but twenty-five hundred have still not come home, only one will be called the Unknown...."


Thanks,
Tyg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: GUEST,Sorcha
Date: 25 May 03 - 07:13 PM

Found quite a few Vietnam Unknown Soldier songs, but not that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Tyghress
Date: 25 May 03 - 10:32 PM

Okay, I figured it out...next request is who wrote it??

Lay on Lincoln's bier the Unknown One
Ten years of forensics can't say which mother's son
Is carried to the caisson behind the six greys
To the cemetery in the rain on Memorial Day.

You were someone's son, and perhaps a brother too
maybe some where in this land, there's a boy who looks like you
Walking with his mother, walking in your wake
To the cemetery in the rain on Memorial Day.

      
For sixty nine hours in that rotunda alone
Mourners filing past in the halls of polished stone
Is your name on Maya's granite where the sunlight will play
When the rain is all gone on Memorial day.

Now we've laid you to rest, our Vietnam son
Saluted you with medal and flag and twenty-one guns
But we can't give you back the years the war stole away
Perhaps at last some peace on Memorial Day.

       And the railsplitter's words will echo throughout the land
       Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, fifes and drums and marching bands
       Twenty five hundred have still not come home
       But only one will be called The Unknown.



Please feel free to correct the words if you have them.

Tyg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 26 May 03 - 03:34 AM

G'day,

Thanks for posting those words Tyg!

For some weeks now the "Unknown Warrior" has been haunting me.

First - Later this year, New Zealand will dis-inter an 'unknown' Kiwi soldier's bones from the 'Flanders Fields" (France 1914-18) to bring back to Wellington for a memorial. I hope a few red poppies come as well.

As well. I see increasing news references to digging up 'mass graves' in Iraq and Africa - probably Indonesia, in the next few days ....

Umm... I think I can live with a 'single unknown' to represent war dead. BUT - Where did he come from, but ... ?

   "The Womb of the Unknown Worrier"

Vis: His Mum .... (& Dad, sisters, brothers, cousins etc)

Y'know, probably all the 'Unknown Warrior's' mother got was a message saying ....

   'Missing - Presumed Dead'

Now, there's a theme for Mudcat Songwriters - The mothers of the 'unknown soldiers'.

I there an Eric Bogle ot there?

Cheers - Sam

Actually, I'm not cheery - I'm watering my whisky with tears

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 26 May 03 - 09:55 AM

Billy, me too - I'm an orphan, my father was KIA half a year before I was born. Im 60 years old and I'm still crying when a certain song is played on Memorial Day, or when I read a thread like this.
A theme for a song could be the little orphan, still hoping that his father will come back, when he sees the POWs coming back from Russia ten years after the war, until the hope fades away and he is certain that he will never know his father.
Have to stop now, memories are too bad.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: GUEST,Tyghress
Date: 26 May 03 - 10:08 AM

A bit of an addendum...especially for those 'Catters not here in the States, there is an Unknown Soldier from each war since the Civil War, laying in Arlington Cemetery, and I believe that they are brought to the rotunda in the Lincoln Memorial on Memoral Day weekend in rotation. There is an eternal watch over the grave in Arlington, eeried and precise.

The Unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War was identified a year or two ago using more modern forensics. I don't know if another soldier's remains are being honored now.

BTW, the chorus above was accidentally cut from its place after the first two verses. I meant to copy it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 27 May 03 - 01:28 AM

Wilfried - we're the same age. My father returned from the Pacific in an unhealthy condition (amoebic dysentry). He never saw 'action' - but, I had a Dad - for many years. My thoughts are with you!

What's the song that causes you to water your whisky on Memorial Day?

'Lili Marlene' is one of several from WWII (European Theatre) that does it for me!

Tyg - thanks for the addendum. Umm... Do they really drag the unknown soldier bones from Arlington to Lincoln Memorial "In Rotation" each year?

I must introduce a bit of levity, by saying "Well, wouldn't that rotate you?"

Can't they leave the poor blokes to RIP!!!!!!!

Cheers - Sam (not watering his whisky)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 27 May 03 - 03:30 AM

Billy - It's "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden". One of two really good buddies is hit by the lethal bullet, and the other one can't press his hand for a farewell because of the firing drill in the line.
Thanks for your compassionate words.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 May 03 - 10:05 AM

Thanks for the lyrics, Tyghress, but I think you are mistaken about the remains of the Unknown Soldiers being brought to the Lincoln Memorial. Traditionally, the President places a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns on Memorial Day. This may also happen at other times, such as when there are visiting heads of state.

I think the song refers to the interment of the Vietnam Unknown on Memorial Day, 1984. Before the interment, the casket lay in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol. "Lincoln's bier" refers to the Lincoln Catafalque, which has been used for many state funerals.

Here is information from the official website of the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

There is more information at an unofficial site here

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
From: GUEST,Jack Warshaw
Date: 22 May 13 - 06:42 AM

Written 1967, sung by JW at the Singers Club, London, recorded by Barbara Dane on "What Now People?"


BALLAD OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Rod Shearman with Jack Warshaw 1967

1. Come and listen to a story I will tell
Of a young GI you will remember well.
He died in Vietnam on the Mekong Delta land,
He had sandals on his feet and a rifle in his hand.

CHORUS: I wonder what was his name?
I wonder from which town he came?
I wonder if his children understand the reason why
Or the way he had to fight and the way he had to die.

2. They say that December '65
Was the last time he was ever seen alive.
It was U.S. Army lies that caused him to decide
To leave his old top sergeant and fight on the other side. (Cho)

3. Was he lonesome for his homeland far away?
Fighting with his new companions night and day?
In the base and jungle camps they tell about a man
Sharing hardships with his comrades fighting on the other side. (Cho)

4. It was in the month of April '68,
In the Delta land he met a soldier's fate.
He fought to his last breath and he died a hero's death,
And he wore the black pajamas of the People's NLF. (Cho)

5. Well it's now that poor soldier's dead and gone.
His comrades and his friends are fighting on.
And when the people win, of their heroes they will sing,
And his name will be remembered with the name of Ho Chi Minh. (Cho)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Vietnam Unknown Soldier
From: mg
Date: 22 May 13 - 08:21 PM

Ich hatte einem komaraden does it for me too but it also consoles me as no other song..if you would like to sing it on the VIetnam CD I am putting out you can...I think they sang it in French in Indochina.