Singing In Vietnam Talking Blues

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" . 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!