The Wall Song

Annotation

JP Williams is a singer/songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. He released the song "The Wall Song", written by songwriters Mitch Townley and Brad Dunse, inspired by a poem called "The Spirit of the Wall" by Judy Gorman King.12 The song is narrated from the perspective of one of the names on the wall, who observed his friend visiting him, "with that silver in your hair". The narrator is "all of 21...forever young at the Wall". The narrator recalled joining the army, expressing patriotic sentiment: "we were proud to serve our country". The narrator was then "shipped...off to 'Nam". He recalled the heat, mud, blood, and death. He was K.I.A., and so his friend returned to the US alone, to a country that could not comprehend the impact of the war on the veterans.Sources1jpwilliams.net↩2vva.org: The wall song↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Veterans Memorial Wall Songs

JP Williams is a singer/songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. He released the song "The Wall Song", written by songwriters Mitch Townley and Brad Dunse, inspired by a poem called "The Spirit of the Wall" by Judy Gorman King.12 The song is narrated from the perspective of one of the names on the wall, who observed his friend visiting him, "with that silver in your hair". The narrator is "all of 21...forever young at the Wall". The narrator recalled joining the army, expressing patriotic sentiment: "we were proud to serve our country". The narrator was then "shipped...off to 'Nam". He recalled the heat, mud, blood, and death. He was K.I.A., and so his friend returned to the US alone, to a country that could not comprehend the impact of the war on the veterans. Sources1jpwilliams.net↩2vva.org: The wall song↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: When you were searchin' for my name today I saw you standing there man / You look different with that silver in your hair / Me I haven't aged a bit, still all of 21, that's the thing about us spirits / We're forever young at the wall, here at the wall / We were proud to serve our country when called by Uncle Sam / Then more than a little anxious, when they shipped us off to 'Nam / Remember all the heat and bugs, days marchin' through the mud / Constant gunfire, smell of death, sight of all that blood / Some gave all, the names carved in this wall / But it's a wall of love, a wall that heals, a wall that touches and helps / You feel the faces of more than 50,000 names / Feel the wall, be forever changed / When we finally got the orders sayin' we could go back home / They were lookin' for my body so you made the trip alone / You came back to a country that couldn't comprehend how so many boys that left returned as messed up men / Who served with all the names here on the wall.... / So as you stand there weepin' with your fingers on my name / Share with those cute grand kids the reason for this place / To restore some stolen gratitude and dignity / This granite wall of honor that holds my memory... / It's wall that heals, a wall that touches and helps you feel the faces of more than 50,000 names / Feel the wall, be forever changed, feel the wall...

Themes

Patriotic · Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall · Combat · Soldier's Perspective · PTSD

In collections

PTSD Songs · Veterans Memorial Wall Songs