Join the RSL
Not On Label · Melbourne, Australia
- Artist
- Lyell Sayer
- Title
- Join the RSL
- Release
- Unreleased
- Label
- Not On Label
- Format
- Unreleased · Unreleased
- Language
- English
- Country
- Melbourne, Australia
- Songwriter
- Lyell Sayer
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Lyrics
English: A young man dressed in an army uniform / Was standing in a hotel looking all forlorn / His unit was ready to leave for Vietnam / When suddenly upon his back a heavy hand did slam / He turned straight around and to his surprise / He looked into a pair of bloodshot eyes / A middle-aged man in a beer-stained suit / Had slapped him on the back and said, 'You beaut! / Now listen to me lad, to you I will tell / Of the gains that are made by enduring shot and shell / If you do your duty and you do it well / Then you will be allowed to join the RSL' / So off went the lad to fight in the war / In the way that many others had done before / Even though in his heart it made no sense / He went to do his duty in our defence / Well he did his duty and he did it well / Till he was torn apart by a mortar shell / As he lay in the mud and his life drained away / He heard again a voice and the voice did say: / 'Now listen to me lad, to you I will tell / Of the gains that are made by enduring shot and shell / If you do your duty and you do it well / Then you will be allowed to join the RSL'
Notes
Written in the 1960s; Sayer: "I wanted to hit at the RSL's pro-war mentality of the time." Tune: "Click Go the Shears". Printed in Ratbags & Rabblerousers.
About the artist
Lyell Sayer - contemporary folk singer-songwriter of political and labour songs, Melbourne.
Themes
In collections
Australian & New Zealand Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]