Sky Pilot (song)

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"Sky Pilot" is a 1968 song by Eric Burdon and The Animals, released on the album [[The Twain Shall Meet]]. When released as a single the song was split across both sides, due to its length. As "Sky Pilot (Parts 1 & 2)" it reached number 14 on the U.S. pop charts.

The Sky Pilot of the title is a military chaplain, as revealed by the opening verse:

He blesses the boys

As they stand in line

The smell of gun grease

And the bayonets they shine

He's there to help them

All that he can

To make them feel wanted

He's a good holy man

The line-up includes Eric Burdon on lead vocals, Vic Briggs on guitar, John Weider on guitar and electric violin, Danny McCulloch on bass guitar, and Barry Jenkins on drums.

The song is a balladic "slice of life" story about a chaplain who blesses a body of troops just before they set out on an overnight raid or patrol, and then retires to await their return.

"Sky Pilot" is organized into three movements: an introduction, a programmatic interlude, and a conclusion.

The introduction begins with the verse quoted above, sung a cappella and solo by Eric Burdon. Thereafter the band joins in with instruments for the chorus. Several verse-chorus iterations follow, leaving the story with the "boys" gone to battle and the Sky Pilot retired to his bed. The verses are musically lean, dominated by the vocal and a pulsing bass guitar, with a strummed acoustic guitar and drum mixed in quietly.

The interlude starts as a guitar solo, but the guitar is quickly submerged under a montage of battle sounds. First come the sounds of an airstrike; then the airstike and Rock band fade into the sounds of shouting, gunfire, and bagpipes. Near the end of the interlude the battle sounds fade, briefly leaving the bagpipes playing alone before the third movement begins. (The bagpipe music is a covert recording of the pipers of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards playing "All The Bluebonnets Are Over The Border", captured by Burdon while performing at a school. He received an angry letter from the UK government (or possibly the Crown) over his use of the recording in the song. [1])

The conclusion begins with the return of the bass and strummed acoustic guitar, accompanied by strings. After a few measures the verses resume, but with a quieter, melancholy atmosphere: one verse is sung along with bass, guitar, and strings, and then without a choral break a final verse (quoted below) is sung to bass, guitar, and woodwinds. Finally a strong bass line announces the return of the chorus, now accompanied with horns and piccolos, repeated several times as it fades. The musical effect is very upbeat, in stark contrast with the "downer" content of the movement's lyrics.

The song is universally interpreted as an anti-war protest song. There are no overt anti-war statements, but no glorification of war either. The (presumed) anti-war message is conveyed simply and obliquely, by lines such as:

But he['ll] stay behind

And he'll meditate

But it won't stop the bleeding

Or ease the hate

and the final verse:

In the morning they return

With tears in their eyes

The stench of death

Drifts up to the skies

A young soldier so ill

Looks at the Sky Pilot

Remembers the words

'Thou Shall Not Kill'

There is also a sense of futility, or perhaps moral judgement upon the chaplain, conveyed by the chorus:

Sky Pilot

You'll never reach the sky

The war in question is usually assumed to be the Vietnam War, though the bagpipes and apparent sounds of a dive bomber in the interlude, taken with the UK nationality of the artists, may suggest an earlier era.