Much like a lot of people, when I first heard this song I was also under the impression that it was patriotic and joyful. It wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that I really understood it.
He's talking about the country that he was born into, raised in, touted as the greatest in the world. He's talking about it in context to the Vietnam War. The character in the song has a brother and a lover of his brother, both whom are killed during this meaningless conflict. The lines "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go"
show that these vets are living dead-end lives with little or no positive change in their future. Even the line where he talks about the woman and his brother "They're long gone" shows that some peopel really didn't pay any attention to the people returning from Vietnam.
Much like a lot of people, when I first heard this song I was also under the impression that it was patriotic and joyful. It wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that I really understood it.
He's talking about the country that he was born into, raised in, touted as the greatest in the world. He's talking about it in context to the Vietnam War. The character in the song has a brother and a lover of his brother, both whom are killed during this meaningless conflict. The lines "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary Out by the gas fires of the refinery I'm ten years burning down the road Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go"
show that these vets are living dead-end lives with little or no positive change in their future. Even the line where he talks about the woman and his brother "They're long gone" shows that some peopel really didn't pay any attention to the people returning from Vietnam.