Gung Ho

Lyrics

On a field of red, one gold star
 Raised above his head
 Raised above his head
 He was not like any other
 He was just like any other
 And the song they bled
 Was a hymn to him
 Awake my little one
 The seed of revolution
 Sewn in the sleeve
 Of cloth humbly worn
 Where others are adorned
 The question is raised
 Raised above his head
 Was he of his word?
 Was he a good man?
 For his image fills the southern heart
 With none but bitterness
 Above the northern plain
 The great birds fly
 Over the paddy fields
 Where the people kneel
 As the fathers toil
 Yet not for their own
 And the wheel groans
 There before a grass hut
 A young boy stood
 His mother lay dead
 His sisters cried for bread
 And within his young heart
 The seed of revolution sewn
 He grew into a man
 Not like any other
 Just like any other
 With a beard, the color of rice
 A face the color of tea
 Who shared the misery
 Of other men in chains
 Escaped the guillotine
 To serve the whole people
 To suffer them unity
 Though they asked it not
 Who fought colonialism, imperialism
 Who remained awake
 When others did not
 Who penned like Jefferson
 Let independence ring
 And the cost, hold on
 And the cart of justice turns
 Slow and bitterly
 And the people were crying
 Plant that seed, plant that seed
 And they crawled on their bellies
 Beneath the great beast
 And filled the carts with bodies
 Where once had been their crops, crops
 And the great birds swarm
 Spread their wings overhead
 And his mother dead
 And the typhoons and the rain
 And the jungle in flames
 And the orange sun
 But none could be more beautiful
 Than Vietnam
 Nothing was more beautiful
 Than Vietnam
 His heart stopped beatin'
 And the wheel kept turning
 And the words he bled
 Were a hymn to them
 And the people keep crying
 And the men keep dying
 And the swollen heart weeps
 And it's so beautiful, so beautiful
 Oh, so beautiful
 And yet the question is raised
 Raised above his head
 Was he of his word?
 Was he a good man?
 For his image fills the southern heart
 With none but bitterness
 One more turn
 And it keeps on turning
 One more turn, one more turn
 One more turn, one more turn
 One more turn on the wheel
 One more revolution
 One more turn of the wheel
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho. Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho, Gung Ho
 Give me one more revolution
 One more turn of the wheel
 One more revolution
 One more turn of the wheel
 

Audio Features

Song Details

Duration
11:42
Key
11
Tempo
186 BPM

Share

More Songs by Patti Smith

Albums by Patti Smith

Similar Songs