Khe Sanh (song)
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| "Khe Sanh" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by Cold Chisel | ||
| Genre | Pub Rock | |
| Song Length | 4:09 | |
"Khe Sanh" is a Australian pub rock song, released by the band Cold Chisel in 1978, and named after the Battle of Khe Sanh (1968), during the Vietnam War. The song, written by pianist Don Walker, is about a bitter and disillusioned Australian Vietnam veteran. Most of the Australian veterans were conscripts, who had been sent to fight "someone else's war", and were then expected to reintegrate into society, with little assistance. "Khe Sanh" is one of the most popular songs ever recorded by an Australian act and one generally seen as a resonant symbol of Australian culture.
The mood of the song is typified by its first verse:
I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh
And my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the black market man
I've had the Vietnam cold turkey
From the ocean to the Silver City
And it's only other vets could understand
"Khe Sanh", sung by the band's lead singer, Jimmy Barnes, was released as a 45 rpm single in May 1978. The record reached number four in the band's home town of Adelaide but peaked on the national sales charts at number 43. In August that same year, censors gave it an A Classification, meaning that it was "not suitable for airplay", due to sex and drug references. A single station in Adelaide defied this censorship, and was the instigator of the song's popularity. The ban did not affect the song's long term appeal, and it is extremely popular among working class men born between 1955 and 1975[citation needed]. In 2001, members of APRA, the Australasian music industry's peak body, put "Khe Sanh" at number eight in a poll of the all-time best Australian popular songs.[1]
Other points about the song:
- Few if any Australian soldiers were involved in the siege of Khe Sanh, which was fought by U. S. Marines on one side and the North Vietnamese Army on the other. The only Australian personnel to be directly involved in the siege were the crews of Canberra bombers operated by 2 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, who flew close air support missions in the area.
- The line "Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone" is often misquoted as "the last train". In a 2006 interview, Jimmy Barnes commented on this, saying: "you can't get a train to Vietnam" (The Glasshouse, ABC-TV, November 22, 2006) which is curious, given that the remainder of the verse is:
“Only seven flying hours and I'll be landing in Hong Kong And there ain't nothing like the kisses From a jaded Chinese princess I'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long”
- "Sanh" is often misspelled (even, at times, on official, ie non-bootleg, album covers and sleeve notes) as "Sahn".
- Khe Sanh has also been mentioned in a song lyric by Bruce Springsteen. His 1984 hit "Born in the USA" includes the sentence: "Had a brother at Khe Sanh". Springsteen pronounces it to rhyme with "gone" rather than with "man", as the Cold Chisel version does.
- During the Australian cricket team's tour of the Caribbean in 1995, the players accorded "Khe Sanh" the status of an unofficial team song and sang it frequently.
