The Medic
1968 · Plantation 2 · USA
- Artist
- Neil Ray
- Title
- The Medic
- Release
- Big Fanny / The Medic
- Year
- 1968
- Label
- Plantation # 2
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Neil Ray
- Genre
- Singer Songwriter · Singer Songwriter
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
The song "The Medic" (Plantation Records # 2) by Neil Ray. singer/songwriter. About a soldier on leave (R&R) in Saigon. Tells of his friend, an army medic, killed in action in Haiphong. Impact of war: soldier's perspective.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: A young GI soldier on leave in Saigon / Was stopped by ? who said pardon young man / There's mud on your cap and blood on your sleeve / I think that I'll cancel your seven-day leave / The soldier said ? now please don't treat me wrong / For I've just returned from a place called Haiphong / Where the hardships are many and the comfort are few / And brave men are dying for me and for you / I've come to Saigon just to spend a few days / I don't have much money cause I don't draw much pay / I won't bother your girls or drink up your wine / Just write a few letters to some friends of mine / Last week my best buddy was shot through the chest / As I held him he told me with his last dying breath / Please write to my mother and write to my girl / And tell them I love them as I left this world / He left those two in peace with tears in their eyes / He stayed there three days and went back to his guise / Cause he was a medic and his future was made / The cry of the wounded would need his first aid
Notes
Plantation Records #2 (711-291), green and white label; "The Medic" (Neil Ray), 2:57, Shelby Singleton Music, BMI, and Sound Lab of Jax, BMI; "A Division of Shelby Singleton Productions Inc., Nashville, Tenn.". [From the record sleeve and labels]