Very young musicians, particularly in the ...
... mid 60's, you know, it's ...
... it's different now, it's uh ...
... when I was ...
... 15 or 16 ...
... when I signed my record contract, I'd never ...
... I'd never met anybody ...
... who'd ever had a record contract ...
... on a big label
And there wasn't anyone in the E Street Band ...
... or anyone that I knew that had ever been on an airplane
We were like the a ...
... lost tribes of New Guinea, you know, we ...
... we saw them flying overhead
We knew they were real
Didn't know what they were about
But uh ...
We were lucky that in our ...
... neighborhood, there were ...
... some excellent musicians
And there were ...
... two brothers, particularly that meant a great, great deal of a hero
called The Cichon brothers, and they ...
... had a group called the Motifs
Ray Cichon was a ...
... was a particurlary fluent guitarist,
he was a very tall man
And he held his guitar, I remember, way up here
But he was so incredibly fluent on it ...
... and then he would take the time to tutor me
He worked in the shoe store and he would come ...
... after his work and he would come to...
... a little dining room and uh ...
... in our little shotgun house and he was ...
... take away 45 minutes or so to tutor me ...
... on solos of the day
And he had a ... he had a ...
... another brother that was called Walter and ...
Walter was this uh ...
... I think the first person I ever saw this felt ...
... like a real ... rock star to me, you know,
you were afraid to talk to him ...
... he was kinda scary ...
... he had long curly hair ...
... really long ... and uh ...
... and he was just very sort of uh ...
he had a tremendous animal presence and ...
... he was great, great frontman
I wrote this song really thinking about Walter ...
... and thinking about Bart Haynes ...
... who was the drummer in my first band, The Castiles
And uh ...
Both Bart and Walter were ...
... were killed in action in Vietnam,
they were very, very young ...
... I don't know, 19, I suppose ... at best
And uh, it was a ...
... a tremendous, tremendous loss,
tremendous loss ...
... to our neighbourhood,
to our town ...
... to uh ...
... that thing inside of you ...
... that feels somehow ...
... that the best should,
should get their shot
And uh ...
... you know as it went along ...
... met a lot of Vietnam veterans over the years
And, uh ...
... probably since the mid, mid and late 70's ...
... and of course ...
... many guys who were injured and hurt terribly ...
... and who swore themselves that they ...
never again, never again
But of course uh...
... of course it happens again and again ...
So this is for uh...
... any of our veterans out there ... and uh...
Not just Vietnam, but ... Iraq, Afghanistan
This is a uh ...
... this is a short ...
... but this basically is I guess is ...
... this is a ... short prayer ...
... for my country, so this is called The Wall
Cigarettes and a bottle of beer ...
... this poem that I wrote for you
This black stone and these hard tears ...
... are all I got left now of you
I remember you in your Marine uniform laughin’,
laughin’ at your ship out party
I read Robert McNamara ...
... says he's sorry
Your high boots and striped T-shirt,
oh Billy, you looked so bad
And you and your rock-n-roll band ...
... you were best thing this shit town ever had
Now the men who put you here eat with their families ...
... in rich dining halls
And apology and forgiveness ...
... got no place ... here at all ...
... here at the wall
Well, I’m sorry I missed you last year,
I couldn't find no one to drive me
If your eyes could cut through that black stone,
tell me would they recognize me
For the living time it must be served,
the day goes on
Cigarettes and a bottle of beer,
skin on black stone
On the ground dog tags and wreaths of flowers,
ribbons red as the blood
Red as the blood you spilled ...
... in the Central Highlands mud
Now, limousines rush down Pennsylvania Avenue ...
... rustling the leaves ... as they fall
And apology and forgiveness ...
... got no place ... here at all
Here at the wall