I Can't Write Left Handed (Live)
1973 · Sussex SXBS 7025-2 · USA
- Artist
- Bill Withers
- Title
- I Can't Write Left Handed (Live)
- Release
- Live at Carnegie Hall
- Year
- 1973
- Label
- Sussex # SXBS 7025-2
- Format
- LP · Live
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation — Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs
Recorded live at Carnegie Hall, the song "I Can't Write Left Handed" (Sussex Records # SXBS 7025-2) is one of the first songs released after the official end to US direct involvement. In the introduction, Withers noted that the war had "been declared over" and that the conflict had been "one big drag". He then spoke about young guys who had no idea "about government or political things". Yet they were law-abiding, and so they went to war without asking questions. It talked specifically about a soldier who "just got back" from Vietnam and had lost an arm. Withers recalled a conversation with the veteran: "the war has been declared over. If you're like me you'll remember it...as one big drag. A lot of people write songs about wars and government, very social things. But I think about young guys who...had no more idea...about government or political things...They are very law-abiding, so if someone says go, they don't ask any questions, they just go. I saw a young guy with his right arm gone. Just got back. I ask him, how he was doing...He said getting shot at didn't bother him. It was getting shot that shook him up". In the main song the veteran who lost his arm could not understand why the "strange little man over here in Vietnam" would shoot him "in the shoulder". The veteran also recalled the days at "boot camp", not realising what was in store with his "rosy colored glasses".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: I can't write left-handed / Strange little man over here in Vietnam / I ain't never seen, bless his heart / Ain't never done nothing to / He done shot me in my shoulder... / Boot camp we had classes / You know we talked about fightin', fightin' everyday / And lookin' through rosy, rosy colored glasses / I must admit it seemed exciting anyway / But something that day overlooked to tell me / Bullet look better I must say / Rather when they comin' at you / But go without the other way
About the artist
American soul singer-songwriter, born 4 July 1938 in Slab Fork, West Virginia ('I Can't Write Left-Handed'); died 30 March 2020 in Los Angeles, California. [Source: Wikipedia]