Ok, so I wrote this one about a year ago and never really liked it. I gave it to a friend of mine, though, and he DID like it. I'm curious what your general reaction is - I want to drop it, but if it's actually better than I give it credit for, I'll keep working on it. Thoughts?

Ballad of 2000 Gone (I know, the title dates itself)
The plane arrives, it's 1:13 in the A.M.
The door clangs open, on out climb all the women and men
They don their caps, stand in line, salute the man in green
The boots they klop and the march won't stop until all of hell is seen

The sun comes up as the camp awakes, arise! prepare for war
The troops climb out of their cots, not knowing what they're heading for
The mess hall clears, the jeeps roll on to the battlefield

The Jeep doors open, the boots hit dirt and begin to run
The charge begins and won't turn back 'till the deed is done
A roadside bomb explodes and catches them by surprise
The 2,000th man sees his young life flash before his eyes

Out on the runway, a mother waits for her son to come back
The plane arrives, the hatch falls open, they unload the body sack
The 2,000th soldier is dead and gone, but yet we're still at war
The 2,00th soldier dead and gone, what the hell are we fighting for?

(Copyright Seth Kennedy 2007, all rights reserved)

I like it. It is better than you think, I think. Sadly, you could keep it fresh by changing the year and the number lost as those change. I mean, heck, Arlo's been 'singing,' "It was 42 Thanksgivings ago..." I vote 'work on it.' (And don't forget the copyright thingy.)

That's really good. Keep on working on it as they said...

Thanks, guys! I know the numbers are a bit outdated - I will fix that for a final version. I gotta say, I'm pleasantly shocked by the responses this one gets. I've thought that it was easily my weakest effort yet since the day I wrote it!

Thanks, guys!

Seth,

That's really great !

Have you listened to John Brown by Dylan ? If not check it out, especially the MTV unplugged version. It will blow you away.

(dig my son's Seth's picklescapades in the Arlo thru the generations thread.......such a cool name.)

Kevin

Haha thanks, bro. Anyone who knows me will tell you that there is only one man whose music hits me closer to home than Arlo, and that's the guy who fishes upstream of Arlo and catches his songs.