Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation (Tom Paxton) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:03I got a letter from LBJ to pretend this
3. 0:10is your lucky day it's time to put khaki
4. 0:13trousers on though it may seem very
5. 0:17queer we've got no job to give you here
6. 0:19so we are sending you to be ad nom
7. 0:23Lyndon Johnson told the nation have no
8. 0:26fear of escalation
9. 0:28I am trying everyone to believe
10. 0:31though it is in really war was sending
11. 0:3415,000 more to help say Vietnam
12. 0:37Vietnamese
13. 0:39I jumped off the old troop ship and sank
14. 0:42in mud up to my hips I cussed until the
15. 0:45captain called me down
16. 0:47nevermind how hard it's raining think of
17. 0:50all the ground good caning just don't
18. 0:52take one step outside of town
19. 0:55Lyndon Johnson told the nation have no
20. 0:58fear of escalation
21. 0:59I am trying everyone to please
22. 1:03though it isn't really war we're sending
23. 1:0650 thousand more to help save Vietnam
24. 1:09from Vietnamese
25. 1:13every night the local gentry slip out
26. 1:16past the sleeping sentry they go out to
27. 1:18join the old VC
28. 1:21in their nightly little drama they put
29. 1:24on their black pajamas and come lobbing
30. 1:26mortars shells at me
31. 1:29what a Lyndon Johnson told the nation
32. 1:31have no fear of escalation
33. 1:33I am trying everyone to please though it
34. 1:38isn't really war we're sending 50
35. 1:40thousand more to help save Vietnam from
36. 1:43Vietnamese
37. 1:44[Music]
38. 1:47we'd go around in helicopters like a
39. 1:50bunch of big grasshoppers searching for
40. 1:52the Vietcong in vain
41. 1:56that they had gone they had to get down
42. 1:58to Saigon their government positions to
43. 2:01maintain
44. 2:03and Lyndon Johnson told the nation have
45. 2:06no fear of escalation
46. 2:07I am trying everyone to flee though it
47. 2:12isn't really war we're sending 50
48. 2:14thousand more to help save Vietnam from
49. 2:17the enemy
50. 2:21well here I sit in this rice paddy
51. 2:23wondering about Big Daddy and
52. 2:26Lynden loves me so
53. 2:29yeah how sadly I remember way back
54. 2:32yonder in November when he said I'd
55. 2:34never have to go run and Johnson told
56. 2:38the nation have no fear of escalation
57. 2:41I am trying everyone to please though it
58. 2:46isn't really war what 750 thousand more
59. 2:49to help save Vietnam from Vietnamese
60. 2:52you
61. 2:56[Music]