Now playing…
Posted by Linedan on 12 May 2008
One of the greatest songs you’ve probably never heard. Australian ’70s-’80s supergroup Cold Chisel in a 2003 reunion concert, doing their signature 1978 song “Khe Sanh”. I just love this song lyrically. Not to mention the fact that Jimmy Barnes, the lead singer, is 45 years old in this clip and still has one hell of a voice. (Dig around YouTube for some of his 2008 concerts…52 years old and coming off heart surgery and he can still out-scream-sing guys half his age. Dude’s unreal.)
Lyrics:
I left my heart to the sappers ’round Khe Sahn
And I sold my soul with my cigarettes, to the black market man
I’ve had the Vietnam cold turkey, from the ocean to the Silver City
And it’s only other vets could understand
About the long forgotten dockside guarantees
How there were no V-day heroes in nineteen seventy-three
And 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 their 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
And 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, flyin’ choppers when I could
But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend
And I’ve traveled round the world from year to year
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 again
Well the last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
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 long
Well the last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
You know the last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
And it’s really got me worried, I’m goin’ nowhere and I’m in a hurry
The last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
Well the last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
You know the last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
And it’s really got me worried, I’m goin’ nowhere and I’m in a hurry
The last plane out of Sydney’s almost gone
