Capo 3rd fret
Intro:
||: G | G :||
G
One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife,
C
"We've been ev'rywhere once and some places twice."
A7
As I had another helping of country ham, she said,
D
"We ain't never been to Vietnam,
G
And there's a bunch of our boys over there."
C D7
So we went to the Orient, Saigon.
G
Well, we got a big welcome when we drove in
C
To the gates of a place that they call Long Ben.
A7
We checked in and ev'rything got kind of quiet.
D
But a soldier boy said, "Just wait till tonight.
G C
Things get noisy, things start happenin'.
D7
Big, bad firecrackers."
G
Well, that night we did about four shows for the boys
C
And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise.
A7
We did our last song for the night
D
And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet.
G C
But things weren't peaceful and things weren't quiet.
D7
Things were scary.
G
Well, for a few minutes, June never said one word,
C
And I thought at first that she hadn't heard.
A7
Then a shell exploded not two miles away.
D
She sat up in bed and I heard her say,
G C
"What was that?" I said, "That was a shell or a bomb."
D7
She said, "I'm scared." I said, "Me too".
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/j/johnny_cash/singing_in_vietnam_talking_blues_crd.html ]
G
Well, all night long that noise kept on,
C
And the sound would chill you right to the bone.
A7
The bullets and the bombs and the mortar shells
D G
Shook our bed ev'ry time one fell and it never let up.
C D7
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.
A7
Then a soldier knocked on our door and said,
D G
Last night they brought in 7 dead and 14 wounded.
C
D7
And would we come down to the base hospital and see the boys. Yeah.
G
So, we went to the hospital ward by day
C
And ev'ry night we were singin' away.
A7
Then the shells and the bombs till dawn again,
D
And the helicopters brought in the wounded men.
G C D7
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."
A7
We did our best to let 'em know that we care
D
For ev'ry last one of 'em that's over there.
G
Wether we belong over there or not,
C D7
Somebody over here loves 'em and needs 'em.
G
Well, now, that's about all that there is to tell
C
About that little trip into livin' hell.
A7
And if I ever go back over there anymore,
D
I hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for.
G
I hope that war is over with
C D7 G
And they all come back home to stay in peace.
For more Johnny Cash chords, see www.unofficial-johnnycash.com!
