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Back Where the Soldier fell

from Jacquerie by Edward Morneau

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about

I needed to get one song absolutely right regarding the plight of soldiers in this war, and I hope it’s this song. On the Kinks’ great record, Arthur, there is a heartbreaking anti-war song called “Some Mother’s Son,” written by the brilliant Ray Davies. His lyric— ‘Some mother’s son lies in a field/ Some mother’s son killed some mother’s son today’— ruptures the glory and honor that pervades the elusive gallantry of soldiers killing soldiers for some vague principal that can’t possibly transcend the aching love and loss each mother must feel for her dead son. I wanted my song to have such a simple, powerful, horrible truth, but I could not get away from how complicit we all are in this particular war, and how indifferent we are to the very families who give up their members for this terrible mistake. It’s bad enough that soldiers die; it’s catastrophic to experience as a citizen the corrosion of civil morality that perpetuates an unnecessary and cynically conceived war.

This war is not just taking place on the sand, but in the psychology of a nation that believes war is the only way to barter its security, relinquishing restraint, reason, and diplomacy for the sake of the so-called heroic path.

lyrics

Back Where the Soldier Fell

Back where the soldier fell 

There will be a tale to tell 

While the priests and the infidels mock time


In a flash the deed was done 

One lost, the other won 

And those who loved the both of them just cry.

The big sky cannot weep 

The big secret is there to keep 

The rest of us who are fast asleep in his arms.

No call to sacrifice 

No call to help his wife

Pack away his child in ice for later on.

Thaw him out when he becomes a man
Let the whole thing begin again 

The flag will keep him warm while he waits.

The time will come to earn his right
To find the darkness and seize the night
And know that a true killer never hesitates.

Back where the soldier fell

Before he died he heard a bell

He remembered school recess and his friends.

The dodge ball game he had won
The day he said goodbye to mom
And dad, in tears and delirium—
Where are they sending him?

He’s a man in no man’s land

Where things will never make sense to him
‘Cause nothing ever begins or ever ends.

Though words from home are poetry 

A parade awaits in grave symmetry 

A sacrifice to hegemony and the dead.

Back where the soldier fell 

I kneel and curse to hell 

That war is such an easy thing to sell in our time.

If I could I would lift him up

Bring him home and say that’s enough 

But I’m afraid that I’m not that tough...

credits

from Jacquerie, track released January 1, 2010

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Edward Morneau Salem, Massachusetts

Edward Morneau has been a musician and songwriter most of his life. His focus on multiple genres and interest on sound collage experimentation makes his music hard to classify. His muses range from Beatles, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, XTC, Kinks, Iris DeMent to Mahler, Shostakovich, Penderecki & Zappa. His background as an English & Film teacher gives humor and striking imagery to his songs. ... more

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