SAM STONE
Sam Stone came home
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas
And the time that he served
Had shattered all his nerves
And left a little shrapnel in his knees
But the morphine eased the pain
And the grass grew round his brain
And gave him all the confidence he lacked
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios, mmhmm
Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios, mmhmm
Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
There was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the GI bill
For a flag-draped casket on a local hero's hill
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios, mmhmm
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Prine
Sam Stone lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc
d.: Over the last several days, to celebrate the Fourth of July, Independence Day for the United States of America, I’ve been pointing out how the armed services must work together to be successful. The United States has the most powerful military in the world, but there is another side to war, as pointed out in the late John Prine’s most famous song. That’s why I posted the lyrics to “Sam Stone” at the beginning of this blog.
John Prine didn’t serve on the front lines of the Vietnam War, as one of my best friends and many of the young men I attended college with. Rather, Prine served at a hospital in Germany that patched up soldiers enough to either send the home or back to the front lines, at least physically. That was the inspiration for this song. Prine combined several of the veterans he saw at the hospital where he worked to create the character, Sam Stone. Prine’s point is that, to help soldiers deal with their physical pain, most soldiers were given narcotics. However, when the physical pain was gone, the emotional pain remained. Many, if not most, turned to narcotics and other rugs to ease the pain from these wounds.
I’ve heard several veterans declare that there is no such thing as a “good war.” There is only war and peace. And yes, I realize that, as far as the United States was concerned, we were involved in a “Police Action” during the “Lost War” (the twenty-year war in South Asia that occurred during the late 1950s. 1960s, and the early 1970s). When more than one million lives are lost, though, this is a war, pure and simple.
As for the proclamation that there is no such thing as a “good war:” although I was ten years old when President Nixon brought our troops back home (his one good decision during his controversial presidency, in my opinion), I still had the opportunity to attend college with some Vietnam War veterans. This was because many of these veterans took eight years (or more) to recover enough from what they saw in the war on the other side of the world (most of whom had no choice but to participate in the “police action”) to be able to concentrate enough to attend college. Most (if not all) never fully recovered mentally, even if their physical wounds had healed.
Please don’t misunderstand my point. Many of my friends and relatives have served, and I’m proud of them. I also realize that sometimes war is a necessity, such as World War II. Letting a madman take over a continent and commit genocide is unacceptable and had to be stopped.
I once made the comment to my father that the last war in the Civil War was pointless, since the Confederacy had already surrendered to the Union forces. My father, a veteran of the Korean War (again, it’s a war, not a conflict if tens of thousands of lives are lost), but not by choice, replied, “Isn’t that true of most wars?” Point taken.
We tell our children to use their words, not their fists to solve conflicts. However, having raised three sons and fostered seven more, I realize that words don’t always suffice. Force is, unfortunately, necessary at times. This is true in conflicts between countries as much as it is in childhood conflicts. This is an unfortunate fact of life, and we’re fortunate enough to live in a country where many young men and women volunteer to give up their liberty and potentially their lives to save ours.
So, the next time you see a veteran, instead of simply saying, “Thank you for your service,” take him/her to lunch, listen to a story, or simply sit and have a conversation with the veteran. S/he was willing to lay down his/her life to save yours.
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