Chiseled in the Wall
1996 · TCWR Records 53787 · USA
- Artist
- Moe Bandy
- Title
- Chiseled in the Wall
- Release
- These Colors Won't Run: A Veteran Tribute
- Year
- 1996
- Label
- TCWR Records # 53787
- Format
- CD · Compilation
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Veterans Memorial Wall Songs
1990s patriotic compilation, with an impressive line-up of artists, including Bobby Bare and B. J. Thomas, in the country music genre, promoted as a tribute to veterans, and thus all the songs deal with war. Two are focused on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in DC. Released on TCWR Records (# 53787), from Dallas, Texas, USA. The song "Chiseled in the Wall" is by Moe Bandy, born 12 February 1944, Meridian, Mississippi, USA, and currently Branson, Missouri, USA. Narrator in the first person, he recalled that he was 18 in 1965, "sent away to the closest thing to hell". The narrator remembered the ones left behind, killed in action, and now on the memorial wall. The song "Beyond the Wall" by well-known country artist Charley Pride, born 18 March 1934 in Sledge, Mississippi, USA, and currently based in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is one of the very few African-Americans to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. He had a hugely successful career, with 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one, becoming the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley.1 The song noted that there is "a story for every name written on that wall", and referred to the "special things" that visitors leave: such as a "ragged teddy bear" - a child's favourite toy, given to them by their father, killed in action?Sources1Wikipedia: Charley Pride↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: "The year was 1965 and I was just eighteen / And I was sent away to the closest thing to hell I’d ever seen / So many boys that were just like me / Only one thing on our mind / To get back home to the ones we love but some were left behind / They’re unsung hero’s and friends we used to know / Maybe they were just next door or called your house their home / For you and I they gave their life / They took that final call / Now they’re just another name that’s chiseled in the wall / That’s been almost 30 years ago but it seems like yesterday / I guess that’s why I come down here and look through all those names / I know that I can’t bring them back / But they live here in my mind / Oh I wish that I could thank them just one time / They’re...another name...chiseled in the wall"
Notes
TCWR Records 53787 (Dallas, Texas), ℗ 1996 Canyon Creek Records; track 6. Reissued digitally in 2011.
About the artist
Moe Bandy (born 12 February 1944 in Meridian, Mississippi, and raised in San Antonio, Texas) is a country singer whose hits included "I Cheated Me Right Out of You" and the Moe & Joe duet "Just Good Ol' Boys", and who later opened the Americana Theatre in Branson, Missouri. [Wikipedia]
Themes
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall · K.I.A. · Vet · Soldier's Perspective