Sky Pilot

Annotation

The song "Sky Pilot" (MGM Records # K-13939), by the British psychedelic rock band the Animals, featured on the 1968 album The Twain Shall Meet. The group formed in 1962 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, UK. The song is typically thought to be about the Vietnam War, although the band mainly referenced the Second World War. Billboard reviewed one of the group's live shows, on 30 March 1968. They wrote that the "group employed a variety of light show effects...In 'Sky Pilot', for example, photos of World War Two scenes, including shots of Adolf Hitler, were used. Then, during a climatic battle sequence, waves of incense-laden smoke was wafted from the stage to the audience. The song, dealing with clerical blessing of battle troops, was aimed at World War Two, but the topicality of the message was clear".1 It told the story of an army chaplain blessing a group of troops setting out for war. Some interpreted this as an anti-war, protest song because of lines like "the stench of death drifts up to the skies... remembers the words 'thou shalt not kill'" - which is really a religious reference in relation to the chaplain at the centre of the story. The song also perhaps expressed some patriotism: "the fate of your country is in your young hands, may God give you strength, do your job real well". On the whole, the song is about the plight of the soldier and a criticism, or exposure, of the support sometimes given to war by organised religion. It reached # 14 in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in August 1968.2 Suggested by psychman.Sources1Billboard, 30 March 1968↩2Billboard, August 1968↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: He blesses the boys as they stand in line / The smell of gun grease and the bayonets / They shine, he's there to help them all... / Sky pilot.....sky pilot, how high can you fly / You'll never, never, never reach the sky... / Tells them its all right, he knows of their fear / In the forthcoming fight, soon there'll be blood / And many will die, mothers and fathers back home they will cry... / The fate of your country is in your young hands / May god give you strength / Do your job real well, if it all was worth it... / The stench of death drifts up to the skies... / Remembers the words, "thou shalt not kill

Notes

MGM K 13939: "Sky Pilot (Part One)" (104,896), BMI, 2:55, and "Sky Pilot (Part Two)" (104,897), BMI, 4:30, both written Burdon-Briggs-Weider-Jenkins-McCulloch, publishers Slamina Music, Inc. & Sea-Lark Enterprises, Inc.; produced by Tom Wilson, arranged and orchestrated by Vic Briggs; credited to Eric Burdon and The Animals. Label rim: "MGM Records – A Division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. – Made in U.S.A." [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

English rock band formed in the early 1960s in Newcastle upon Tyne, England ('We Gotta Get Out of This Place'). [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Soldier's Perspective

In collections

European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · US Combat Perspective Songs [War Years]