You are not logged in. | login to customize your own personal play list |
Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel |
United States Federal Trade Commission forbids anyone under 13 from viewing these music videos! |
You are not logged in. | login to customize your own personal play list |
Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel |
United States Federal Trade Commission forbids anyone under 13 from viewing these music videos! |
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.
|
||
song infoKhe Sanh by Cold Chisel is a rock song. Song Title: Khe SanhArtist: Cold Chisel Album: Cold Chisel Genre: pub rock Composer: Copyright © 1978 Don Walker Lead Vocals: Jimmy Barnes Backing Vocals: Ian Moss Electric Guitar: Ian Moss Acoustic Guitar: Peter Walker Piano: Don Walker Organ: Don Walker (Hammond organ) Bass: Phil Small Drums: Steve Prestwich Harmonica: Dave Blight Director: Paul Drane Producer: Peter Walker Recorded: 1978 Released: May 1978 Format: 7" 45-rpm vinyl single B-side: Just How Many Times Label: WEA Number of listens: 8052 Current rank: 2431 (updated weekly) Highest rank: 2279 (play the video all the way through to register a vote for this song) Translations courtesy of Apple and Google. |
||
Summary quotation from Wikipedia:
Khe Sanh is an Australian song, released as a 45 rpm single in May 1978, and named after the district capital of Hurong Hoa District, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The song, performed by Cold Chisel, having been written by pianist Don Walker and featuring the vocals of Jimmy Barnes, is about an Australian Vietnam veteran dealing with his return to civilian life. According to Toby Creswells liner notes for the bands 1991 compilation album Chisel, the song is also a story of restless youth.
Composition
The mood of the song is typified by its first verse:I left my heart to the sappers round Khe SanhThe remaining verses describe the singers aimless drifting after his return to Australia: womanising, post traumatic stress disorder, addiction to speed and Novocaine, getting work on oil rigs and flying helicopters. He has travelled the world: Ive been back to South East Asia but the answer sure aint there. The final refrain is Well the last plane out of Sydneys almost gone, as the singer heads to Hong Kong for casual sex.
And my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the black market man
Ive had the Vietnam cold turkey
From the ocean to the Silver City
And its only other vets could understand
Don Walker has said the song was inspired by a number of people, including, the guy from the next farm, who came back from Vietnam, severely changed for the worst, and Adelaide guitarist Rick Morris. The first draft was written in Sweethearts Cafe in Kings Cross, New South Wales.
Barnes said of the writing process, Don Walker used to write great songs, but hed take months and months, and you wouldnt know about them until hed turn up that day and say, Lets learn it. I remember we were doing a gig somewhere, it might have been in Melbourne, and Don walked in and said, Ive got this song. Lets do it tonight. Its really easy. And it really was easy for them, because there are not many chords, but for me its like a novel. I had to learn all the words that day. Walker said, I originally wrote it as a punk song, but we found it worked better with a country-rock approach.
Don Walker later described it as the type of song that would be written by an author who had yet to learn the established forms of songwriting. It doesnt follow any of those rules, it has no chorus. The punchline of it is a line out of a verse, it had nothing to do with the title.
Popularity
Khe Sanh is one of the most popular songs ever recorded by an Australian act and one generally seen as a resonant symbol of the Australian culture. Allmusic describes it as, a song that will forever epitomize this period of Australian music. The record reached number four in the bands home town of Adelaide but peaked on the national sales charts at a modest number 41. This was partly a result of actions taken in August 1978, when censors gave it an A Classification, meaning that it was not suitable for airplay. The classification was ostensibly due to sex and drug references, such as the lines: their legs were often open, but their minds were always closed. Walker said, That was the reason they told us, which wasnt necessarily the real one. Barnes later commented Every DJ in the country begged us to release Khe Sanh as a single. Then they banned it two weeks later. They had to ban something once a week to keep the Catholic Church happy. At the start of the Live at the Wireless album, Barnes thanks Double Jay for being the only station that played the song.
In 2001, members of APRA, the Australasian music industrys peak body, put Khe Sanh at number eight in a poll of the all-time best Australian songs. It still receives strong airplay on Australian radio stations with a classic rock format.
In August 2011, Khe Sanh re-entered the ARIA Singles Chart at #40, beating their previous peak position by one spot.
Versions
Two studio versions of Khe Sanh were released by Cold Chisel. The first featured on the bands 1978 debut self-titled album. A second version was included on the international version of the 1980 album East. The newer version overlaid a new keyboard track over Ian Mosss slide guitar break and featured a slightly different vocal reading from Barnes.
A notable cover of the song was released in 2007 by Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly. This rendering was in a stripped down bluegrass/country style, featuring largely spoken lyrics. It was released on the tribute albumStanding on the Outside.
Adam Brand includes the chorus of Khe Sanh at the very end of his single Comin From/Khe Sanh from his fifth album Blame It On Eve.
John Schumann covered Khe Sanh on his 2008 album Behind the Lines. As a member of folk-rock band Redgum, Schumann wrote and sang another hit song about Australians in Vietnam: I was only 19, released in 1983.
Other details
The Battle of Khe Sanh was fought between US Marines with elements of the South Vietnamese ARVN, and the North Vietnamese Army. The only Australian personnel to be directly involved in the siege were the crews of Canberra bombers operated by 2 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, who flew close air support missions in the area.
Sanh is often misspelled (even, at times, on official album covers and sleeve notes) as Sahn.
During the Australian cricket teams tour of the Caribbean in 1995, the players accorded Khe Sanh the status of an unofficial team song and sang it frequently. Ive heard them. Theyre shocking, Barnes has said.
Khe Sanh has also been mentioned in another frequently-misinterpreted song. Bruce Springsteens 1984 hit Born in the USA includes the sentence: Had a brother at Khe Sanh. Springsteen pronounces it to rhyme with barn rather than with man, as the Cold Chisel version does.
A video was made to promote the single, featuring the band miming to the song, directed by Paul Drane. It was filmed in a movie studio in Melbourne.
from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedias block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedias original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and U.S. Government Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 require that web sites provide transcripts of audio for the deaf.
We will be adding lyrics to all songs as fast as we can. Please be patient.
Kayla: Ik houd van dit lied.
To submit a comment, use the form below:
Please use the form (with the delay for a human to inspect it) because this website is attacked by more than 20 spam attempts per minute. The only way to keep you safe from the spam is by having human review.
If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please contact us.
Copyright © 2014 Milo. All rights reserved. Todos Derechos Reservados. The copyrights on all source code and the data base belong to Milo and are used on this web site by permission.
The source code is at OSdata.com, released under Apache License 2.0.
Copyright 2012, 2013, 2014 Milo
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the License); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an AS IS BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Enjoy the This Side of Sanity website Twitter feed.
Enjoy the This Side of Sanity Twitter feed.
|
player artwork by michaelm