i think i wrote “Soldier’s Story” the week of the very last Beilby’s Ball Show in 2007. i had been trying to write it for a while. it’s actually about a greyhound bus trip i took around 2002. if you take a long greyhound trip, you’re sure to overhear some stories, and if the trip is long enough, you may hear another side of the story. this was a very long trip at the start of the war in Iraq.
i decided to record Soldier’s Story for the first time when i started work on Braids, but Braids ended up telling a specific story and Soldier’s Story didn’t really fit that story. but i was happy to finally have a recording of this song after over 10 years. (I released this recording as a b-side to Fayetteville before Braids came out).
this track has layers of guitar and piano samples from the Braids sessions some forward, some backward, some cloaked in delay and filters, some pretty clean. i’ve always loved ska, rocksteady, reggae, and dub. Rebraid was kind of my attempt at dub and i wanted to have a very traditional dub track on there. this was it and it was a lot of fun to make.
lyrics
a soldier told his story, in camouflage
a little boy wondered who he was hiding from, there on the bus
he told of a woman who had his baby, and left his with his dad
his dad's girl won't tell him how much, but he wants to pay them back
my love, she came to me last night, she told me everything
the father, he won custody, 'cos she ain't been the same since the baby and those bombs will fall on anyone, who's lost faith in god
and she got her cocaine, straight from me
a few soldiers, they made a vow, for the war's end
they'd kill me and that whore, to show their love
and those bullets land right where you want, if you've got faith in steel my love, she came to me last night, and it's good, yeah it's good.
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