Touch a Name on the Wall
1988 · Fossil Records 288 · Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Artist
- Joel Mabus
- Title
- Touch a Name on the Wall
- Release
- Joel Mabus in Concert: The Naked Truth
- Year
- 1988
- Label
- Fossil Records # 288
- Format
- LP · Album (live)
- Language
- English
- Country
- Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
- Songwriter
- Joel Mabus
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Veterans Memorial Wall Songs
Contemporary folk singer/songwriter Joel Mabus, born in 1953, Illinois, USA, currently based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, recorded the touching and melodic song "Touch a Name on the Wall" (Fossil Records # 288) about remembering his friend who died in the Vietnam War. The album was released on his own record label on 18 October 1988, based in Lansing, Michigan, and recorded live on 15 January 1988, at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse, Michigan State University. The narrator recalled his "summer of freedom" with his friend after they turned eighteen, when they hitch-hiked to Denver. However, "they took us away in the fall" and now he can only "touch your name on the wall". He said that walls are usually built for division, but that this wall brings people together. He noted that some said "that they all died for nothing", however he disagreed, saying that he "didn't die for no country, he died for me". The song seems to end on an anti-war, anti-establishment standpoint: "damn the liars...who trade on the blood of such men...never again". This song featured on the 1992 compilation Songs of the Wall, below.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: "Well, I guess you could call it our summer of freedom / The year that we both turned eighteen / We hitch-hiked to Denver, straight out of high school, man, we were sights to be seen / And that was the year that you dated my cousin / 'Til they took us away in the fall / Now I dearly wish you were standing here with me / As I touch your name on the wall...God help us all... / Every time I come here I wear my fatigues, to honor rhe men that I knew / I touch every name that came from my outfit / And I read them out loud when I do / Now some people say that they all died for nothing / But I don't completely agree / 'Cause this brother here didn't die for no country, he died for me... / Now, usually walls are made for division, to separate me from you / But God bless the wall that brings us together, and reminds us of what we've been through / And god damn the liars and the tin-plated heroes who trade on the blood of such men / God give us the strength to stand up and tell them, never again"
Notes
Fossil Records 288, side A ("set one"), track 3; ℗ 1988 Fossil Records, P.O. Box 4754, E. Lansing, Michigan. All songs by Joel Mabus, © 1987, 1988 Fingerboard Music, BMI. Recorded live at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse, 15 January 1988, at Erikson Kiva, Michigan State University; engineered by Gary Reid; produced by Joel Mabus; cover by Laurent Dundas; photo by Dave Chapman. This copy is signed by Joel Mabus on the back cover. Also on the 1992 cassette Songs of the Wall. [From the record sleeve and label]
About the artist
Joel Mabus (born 1953, Belleville, Illinois) is a folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Michigan, whose work spans traditional American folk, banjo and guitar. [singingfestival.com]