Added: 3 years ago
From: SwindonByf
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  • Just shut up and listen!!

  • I'm British, and my parents played me this song when I was little. Always stuck in my mind and I've loved it ever since :D

  • Much as I love this song, Steve could have have done a bit more homework. The London Blitz lasted from autumn '40 to spring '41, long before the 8thAAF came here. The P-47 first deployed in March '43. London has an East End and a West End but no North End. And the men of WW2 were the Fathers of the men of Vietnam, not their Grandfathers! All that apart, the melody is irresistable and stays at the top of MY heap. Small point - your President is no more - or less - black than he is white

  • my names johnny hell yeah! 

  • I live on the South Cost of England. A mile to the East there is the remains of an Advanced Landing Ground used by P-47s of 506, 507, 508 sqdrns. 404th Tac. Fighter Group. I wonder.....! 6 miles North there was another USAAF base where a Sergeant Stanley Dunham was in charge of the bomb dump. You might have heard of his grandson - feller by the name of Barack Obama. Ring any bells?

  • @1946nimrod Yep,we all went to war so the Americans could have a nigger president who allows 3rd Worlders to pour into the USA to create a 'melting pot' of freaky mixed up 'blended humanity'

    If the Germans had won England wouldn't be flooded with 3rd Worlders who rape and murder White people and who burnt down Tottenham

    The attempt to 'mix' and 'blend' ALL White countries out of existence is GENOCIDE

    'Anti-racism' is a codeword for Anti-White

  • @zombiekiller117 so funny man. i hope for your own sake that you are a satire. Obama has already deported more undocumented people than any president in American history ! and steve earle is a liberal by the way LOL

  • @zombiekiller117 U R a idiot redneck fuckin moron pal.. PEOPLE are what matter and if fuckwits like you dont give em a reason to hate then they wont

  • @1946nimrod Interesting information. Enlighten me with more. No, I am not being sarcastic, as I just want to know more about history and the people who made it.

  • that is a nice thought, but i dont know if the irish see it that way...

  • For the record, a lot of young Americans died a long way from home helping us beat the Nazis. Ordinary guys with mums and dads and girlfriends. Us Brits owe those ordinary guys from all over including the brave Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, Indians, and all other commonwealth troops. Plus of course the brave Poles, Czecks, French and all other soldiers from oppressed and occupied nations!

    Lost John

  • @JNITLOST Yes Sir, the Brits gave up the fruit of their nation to far flung fields from Normandy to Borneo. I don't think the yanks,Aussies, and all the nations would have achieved victory without them, God bless the Brits for their part.

  • @Mosin54r ..and as Lost John mentions: Every nation that took part in the WWII theater

  • Steve takes the trouble to learn about facts in the songs he does.

    Not many Yanks know about the Blitz on London. (I do, I was a baby in an Andersen shelter in South London)

    Lost John

  • That history right there...fckn classic.

  • It's -DEFINITELY- heard what band is playing the "music" in the song... THE POGUES :]!

  • jus quit being babies fuck ..politacal shit ...fuck u ...us native injuns went thru more shit about all th stuff u bitchn about ....fucksakes its a good song .....jus enjoy it....dont b crying about political garbage.............wa...wa...­wa..........my pops was a war vet and all he got was ridiculed .......so fuck all the crying....jus live cuz ur here now

  • I always like to think of Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis coming from the four corners of the world to help Britain in WW2 as being like 4 sons coming back to the family home to beat the shit out of a group of guys who were threatening their mother. I know I'm romanticising it a bit but it still makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

    God bless all those who served. We are in your eternal debt.

  • Correction, his own Grandma (same point holds). Incidentallye, there's a personal angle to this me. My Dad flew in three wars, with 172 combat missions, shoot down, and Purple Heart in the last one (very low flying). The last one I vigorously opposed and organized against -he was just fine with that. Like the fellow in the final verse, he wasn't treated at all well either. Never said a word about the latter -- his generation were just that way. He passed away in March, and is still my hero.

  • How can you even think he's taking a dig at our allies the Brits -- who took it on the chin far harder and earlier in both Worl Wars than we did -- when the song talks about his own Dad falling in love with and marrying an English girl? Which would make her his own Mom, incidentally.

  • @alphuez Wow...An american who actually gets it right,,,,,,Not Hollywood..Thanks...Yeah..we Brits took it for a couple of years before we got ANY help...Wasn't there (Born in 1945) but my family was. I am Now married to a German lady...we ain't guilty for the sins of our fathers.. I appreciate your comments though

    Love and peace from an old hippie

  • lets it be known far and wide.. If you dislike this you are going to hell..

    and not the fun hell. The bad one with nixon and johnson

  • God bless the generation Steve is singing about here!

    aimez-vous le grand-papa

  • sounds like a badarse version of springsteen.........

  • Incredible song

  • >(<

  • I especially love the intro.

  • @JohnnyTOCach Rolling Rock hasn't been brewed in Latrobe since 05 or so when AB-Inbev purchased them. I quit drinking that shit the day I found out about the acquisition.

  • Love the Reference to the Thunderbolt,

  • Fuck this song. We all know it was the Canadians who won the war.

  • @GatesOfHell4Not true. Canadians played a big and overlooked part in WW2 and other wars and "conflicts", but if it wasn't for the Americans, WW2 would have lasted a hell of a lot longer. It's a shame that they waited so long to get involved. A lot of lives may have been spared.

  • @JohnnyTOCach The Americans played an enormous part. If it hadn't been for their contribution in soldiers, weapons, or raw materials, we might all be speaking German. The war would have, for sure, not been as one-sided as it was, and Britain and the Commonwealth may have even been defeated.

  • @GatesOfHell4 Agreed.....btw we now have Rolling Rock beer in Canada.From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe. Love it. Every time I dipped into the States I'd drink RR. Tastes the same here.

  • @JohnnyTOCach Carling or Sleeman for me. Maybe a Heineken if I'm feeling rich. I'll have to remember that brand, though. Thanks, bud.

  • Both countries are a shadow of their former self... both mired in debt, scandal and greed. Good thing most of these vets aren't alive to see Red China become a superpower. So disapointing.

  • It has been clearly stated that the song was written for a Vietnam vet....same as Copperhead road. No Mystery....his name was John Lorraine

  • @94bubf

    Stated by whom? I have read a lot of interviews with and about Steve, including one on the recording of this song, and have never seen any mention of a John Lorraine. I suspect you are a troll.

  • @nilradem I think its in Hardcore Troubadour: the life and near death of Steve Earle by uhm.. Lauren St John? (correct me if im wrong, i cant remember her name) that it talks about Copperhead Road and lots of songs about Nam were inspired by a friend of Steve's who was a vet of that war. Idk if this is really about him in the sense that his grandaddy served in WWII, but the inspiration for a lot of the Nam images came from talks he had with steve. (I think the vet suffered from PTSD)

  • @BluesBurner

    I have read St. John's book twice; will have to look back. I did check the index, and Lorraine is not mentioned.

    I don't think the song is "about" any one man, and rememeber the idea for the WWII element came from his uncle, who marrried a Enlish woman, and that he wrote it in a London hotel that had been used for barracks. Even if one friend might have prompted him, Steve said the album is like other 80's art about coming to terms with the Vietnam war. (e.g. Platoon.)

  • @nilradem Wel yeah thats true. The 80's thing about Nam was pretty widespread but im sure i saw somewhere how Steve's friend who was a Nam vet kinda unloaded a lot of stuff to Steve and kinda inspired him to write songs about coming to terms with it when he looked around and saw that was a big thing going on then. And yeah the hotel and uncle stuff is right too. But in all it dont matter, its a great song about honoring those who have served bravely even if you dont agree with the war itself.

  • da bollocks of a song . . . love it ! ! !

  • ......... speechless ............

  • I'am an Serbian boys,

    I was born in old Serbia

  • Magic song, great artists, love em..xx

  • THE P-47 WAS THE HEAVIEST SINGLE ENGINE FIGHTER OF THE WAR AND ONE OF THE MOST HEAVILY ARMED WITH 4 50 CAL MACHINE GUNS IN EACH WING. IT WAS KNOWN FOR ITS ABILITY TO TAKE A CRAPLOAD OF DAMAGE AND STILL BRING ITS PILOT HOME.EXAMPLE, LT. ROBERT JOHNSON, JUNE 26,1943

  • WHERE WAS THIS SONG IN ABOUT 1969? IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLAYED AT WOODSTOCK.

  • I want the old USA back...

  • @Klens75 SO DO I !!!!

  • Makes no sense that a soldier fighting in Vietnam could have a grandfather who met grandma during WWII. Even if "dad" were born in '42 (the first year American P-47s were used in combat from England) and had a kid (the narrator) when he was 16, that kid would have been only 17 when the US pulled out of Vietnam in 1975 -- barely old enough to lie about your age and enlist, and certainly not old enough to become a pilot and earn a "couple Purple Hearts."

  • @dgjudy

    Take it as poetic license... as Steve sometimes says "sometimes reality doesn't rhyme." I do know from his biography that he had an uncle who met his wife in England, so I think that may be the origin of the idea behind the song.

  • @dgjudy I caught that impossiblity too.. still like the song tho

  • @dgjudy Yes you are right dgjudy, the cirucmstances described in the song are unlikely. Someone should let Steve know that his artistic license has expired and that he'll have to renew it, Thanks for the heads up.

  • @dgjudy I think we all caught that, but saying "granddaddy" kind of gives it a level of mystic wisdom in the poetic sense. I don't think you're supposed to over think it like that.

  • I saw Steve play in Ottawa(Copperhead Road tour). People wise, it was a mix of country and pop-rock fans and a very good show to boot.

    It is too bad about the substance abuse because he is a very talented song writer.

    For what it is worth, my faves are this and Nowhere Road.

  • @Tull29

    You know he has been clean since 1994, and has more albums since then, right? You make it sound like he is still a user.

  • like the way you murder English

  • @ thllobright, WW1-WW2??

    how is that a noble f***kin era?

    milloins of ppl were murdered/diesis

    so shut the f*** up

  • Excellent piece of work!! Thank you very much for Sharing!!!!!

    What a way of meeting people and get to see their talent. At first was reluctant being on youtube, but getting to do this has brought me into the houses of some very special people. You are one of them. Life; isn't it wonderful!!! Keep up the good work. Hope You Are Having A Splendid Day!!!!

    A New Friend

    Erick

  • Great!

  • The way we treated our Vietnam vets was shameful, I am glad I was not around then, I don't know how well me and the hippies would have got along. Let this be a lesson about how to treat our current Iraq/Afgan war vets

  • Wow, people, LISTEN to the song. Does it SOUND like he's taking a dig at the British? Sounds like its a song about Americans and Brits cooperating to defeat Nazi Germany. Then he contrasts that with shabby treatment of Vietnam vets.

    @Wubbleyou - please get some facts straight before you opine.

  • @xiane1111 thankyou for teaching people what the song is actually about (:

  • Is it a dig at the British?

    The USA go and help in Europe but Britain didn't help out in Vietnam?

  • @TheWubbleyou Thats because the Australians were there to try and pull your asses out of the fire...

    and the only reason why the US got involved in both world wars was because the germans sank the Lusitania with Americans on board and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. Before that, they were happily supplying both sides (more to the Germans and the British)... just ask Dubya where his family's money comes from...

  • @dramoth64 Can you tell me how the US supplied more to Nazi Germany then the UK? Lend Lease was in full swing long before Pearl Harbor. Yes, some companies did business with Germany prior to December 1941, but nothing on the scale that was done with the UK.

  • @TheWubbleyou

    I don't think Steve intends this song as a dig at the Brits. He tends to speak very positively about the UK, and has said he wrote the song after hanging out in London when on tour and thinking about stories his uncle told about WWII. If anything, it is a critique of the way Vietnam vets were forgotten in the US, though he was definitely against the war.

  • @TheWubbleyou Nah mate, I agree with darlincommitme. If you can get your hands on it, read "Smokey Joe's Café" by Bryce Courtenay. It's about the treatment of the vietnam vets and thier kids (who had medical problems because of agent orange) by the Australian public and government. And how they delt with it in a typical Aussie manner ;) is a heartwarming and funny book, but the fact that it's a true story leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, they should've been looked after in the first place.

  • @TheWubbleyou

    This is an inspirational song about a nobler era when the great nations of the world rose up united to defend their shared values. A pity that as our grandfathers fought and died side by side in the trenches in opposition to evil and oppression, our generation sit behind computers trading petty jingoistic insults about who's fat and who has bad teeth.

  • A nobler era?

    you've got to be kidding me, an era of Holocausts and era where millions could die in a single battle?

    Yeah it's a real pity we don't have any wars like that to die in.

  • @daxalon7

    You prefer our present era in which kids are dying for Western commercial interests? You misunderstand me if you think I'm saying war is under any circumstances preferable to peace, but I see no problem with characterizing the fight against fascism as "noble".

  • @trilobright :

    Don't kid yourself. I understand what you're saying but trust me, there are plenty of us who are ready to do what needs to be done. If there's any doubt, I'm referencing all of the men and women serving today.

  • @trilobright That is without any doubt the best comment I've read on youtube. I salute you!

  • @TheWubbleyou No its just the another war foreshadowing that cycle of soldiers in the family will continue.

  • I give all my credit to the poeple FUCK the government

  • i search johnny come lately n this came up, i was looking for the duke ellington song but this is funny

  • Great song, great artist.

  • thanks to the P-47 entering the theater in England in late 1943 -44 before the P-51

    Mustang in ww11, the P-47 was instrumental in that period... that song was sung

    to give credit to those that serve in Vietnam.....

  • Thats not the best Steve Earle Song, it's the best song of music history in the last 100 years...

  • im takiing her home with me one day sir

    soon as we win this war

  • @nightintheruts617 thnhing about my baby and letting her rip

  • @Super23tom

    the average joe was call to tour by peoples government,.. to serve there country .. before

    entering any conflict ... please consider the circumstances of the times it was a very different from ww11

    ponds to the peoples government so give credit to the people not the government some are still dealing

    with this tour today

  • Good stuff!!

  • Comment removed

  • Fantastic. I love Steve Earle and this is one of my favourites.

  • I became a fan over 20 years ago in Australia, because he really hit the Vietnam nail on the head. I always loved this song, but now I live in London and the song is even more poignant.

    I've seen him live 3 times. Old Lion, Bridgeway, and Camden Roundhouse. That was really special, as he mentions Camden in this song.

  • oh, thanx swindon fella from someone down under!!

  • gunna buy a cd for my truck tomoro, play this and guitar town at full noise next cupla days.Steve da man!

    go you amerrycans!

  • great song my family has a long line of military service tellem steve!!!!!!!

  • what a pile of shite

  • best steve earle song "Evahhhhhhh"

  • Always liked Steve Earl heard this tune back in the day..well things went the way they did and...years later played this song at my wedding..Fits me and my life..USAF 1991--??

  • I love this song.

  • Haven't heard this since the eighties - stunning.

    Thanks for posting

  • Your sound rocks!!

    This is my fav Steve Earle song!!!!

  • I love this god damn song! drag the river does an amazing rendition of it. you should def check it out.

  • A really gifted story teller in song. All the A-Side songs tell a story... Very talented muscian.

  • One of my favourite steve earle's songs ;) I listened it first time couple weeks ago and from then on I listen his songs every day ;)

  • The line is "...triple Purple Hearts,so I move a little slow"

  • @doughesson What are you smoking? "couple", not "triple". I know Steve ain't always easy to understand, but that one shouldn't be in question... especially after googling the lyrics.

  • @jsroth70 Google don't always get it right.Plus,when you add in that if you won three Purple Hearts during your tyour,you were supposed to be sent home no matter how badly you wanted to remain and keep your experience in country,it makes more sense.Plus,that's how I've been hearing it since my brother in law handed me an original LP copy.

  • @doughesson

    Definitely don't trust googling sites for lyrics - but check out the liner notes on that LP. Steve's lyrics are included on the CD, and they say "couple." He may not have known that three would send you home.

  • shit kickin' music...cant bate it...:-)

  • Thanks for posting. Your sound quality on these is about the best I have heard on youtube.

  • Hut hut hey, hut hey hut hey hut hey hut-hut-hut . . . . Johhny. ah yes good old steve.

  • my favourite earle song.

  • Steve Earle is fantabulous!!!

  • Now I`m standing on a run way in san diego couple purple hearts and I move a little slow, there`s nobody here maybe nobody knows about a place called Vietnam

    I love that line, It`s not only great lyrics but Steve reminded us how Vietnam vets are forgotten. I never forgot any of them. All of them are my hero`s. Thanks Steve.

  • Even though I am a techno producer and DJ, Mr Earle is one of my favourite artists.

    Learning this on guitar now, amazing piece of music! :)

    From Manchester!

  • Love Steve E. He has been around a long time and very unrated. Great song writer too.

  • great song great song writer and come on the irish

  • steve earle is indescribably gifted i agree he does indeed Rock!

  • music 2party2......

  • i remember hearing this song for the first time it was when i walked in the local oflicence for a fill, and i grew to it straight away (WHAT ROCKS IN HERE TONIGHT ) MOTOCROSS music

  • The guy in the pic needs some nutritional advice pronto!

  • for my father and his father before him and all the brave young men willing to die for me THANK GOD FOR YOU

  • gonna drink camden town dry townight

  • Great song! My Uncle flew P-47's with the Eagle Squadron in the RAF. Only problem is the grandson would have been 12 -16 when the war ended in '76.

  • @joetubecool , the eagle squadron did not fly P-47's (too early) and the war ended in '73 but your point is well taken, and make sense,perhaps Grandpa was a very old pilot early in the war and the grandson enlisted when he was 15

  • thx so much for puttin this on

  • the man

  • love this song

  • unreal

  • good  song

  • this is off the tits, pure porn

  • 17th / 21st Lancers... Death or Glory...

    Kepp on Keeping on...

  • before my mom died this was our favorite song!

  • Sorry for your loss. Your Mum had great taste in music..

  • yeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaa

  • I looked for this ages ago and couldnt find it, so thanks for uploading!

  • Wow!!!!

  • "she took a round comin cross the channel last trip"- such a sick line

  • thanks 4 posting this, i love it......

  • pogues n steve earle makes up for a good song

  • yyyyyhhhhaaaa !!!!

  • yeah, this his best song.

  • Good Artist, Great tune.

  • Yes, it's the Pogues

    read it in the credits and I have an old VHS-tape of the making of

    GREAT SONG

  • Did we all know that the band playing with him is the Pogues

  • great song, are the pogues featured in this or is there another version?

  • I'm not really an American,but,this song just catches me:)

  • This song chokes me up too.

    Steve Earle is one of the great American song writers.

    Love his stuff.

    I saw him at the Riviera in Chicago a few years back. He rocked the place.

  • Yah, well, whatever, this song just brought me to tears, and that's what counts. I miss my grandpa something severe (WWII Vet). They don't make them like that anymore.

  • THANK YOU SWINDONBYF!!!  I LOVE this song! Thanks a million!!! :) :)

  • Neil Young is a shit stain

  • neil young is a gret artist.

  • Well thank you for such a deep, insightful and thoroughly well thought out comment ! Oh yeah your a COCK ! lmao

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  • htisis a great song

  • do u find it mentally challenging to use the letter "t"?

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  • My apologies albeit you being an absolute prick.

  • Earle is from the 5 star club of American Singer songwriters, along with fellow brethren Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits and (dare I say it?) Springsteen....and he's in The Wire. Legend

  • Neil Young? American?! Hahahahaha!

  • Steve Earle is in a category of his own, but in my mind I like to group him with guys like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. If they had their own category I think it would be called "Real Country."

  • good song

  • Steve Earl has been my favorite band since i was a little girl and listened to this with my dad while working in the garage, it was my first concert i ever seen (i was eight) Keep it comming!!!

  • Im sure my neighbors are upset Ive played this song four times in a row at high volume,Steve Earle+Pogues amazing.

  • @Tobsy1981 Same here right now. It's 10.30 PM

  • You have no right to call anyone a fag pussy.

    you got a problem with that my home number is 360-773-2625 my names Toby.

  • his name sounds inbred? your comments make you sound like you have mental problems

  • Thanks for posting these. I'd never heard of Earle (being as I am a Limey and not really into country) but this stuff is so good I've just gone out and bought the album.

    It' Rocks!!!!!

  • Yeah I only heard this as I knew the Pogues were involved with it, now I can't get enough Steve Earle! He does indeed rock :D

  • ummm actually this isn't country, its southern rock. =)