Comment by wisewhiz on August 11, 2006
I didn’t really know about this song until I listened to it on the VH1 Storytellers album with Johnny and Willie. Johnny said that when he wrote the song, he and June were reading a lot of books about Vietnam.
Something he read caught his eye:
“There was a group of guys going along and one of them would fall, and there was no time to stop and grieve because they might get shot, so they would say ‘Drive on, it don’t mean nothing.’ … Drive On.
A way of saying, “Keep going and don’t stop.” Allot of questions are left unanswered. Some things just don’t make sense. Just drive on.
Drive On by Johnny Cash
Well, I got a friend named Whiskey Sam
He was my boonierat buddy for a year in Nam
He said I think my country got a little off track
Took ’em twenty five years to welcome me back
But, it’s better than not comin’ back at all
Many a good men I saw fall
And even now, every time I dream
I hear the men and the monkeys in the jungle scream
Drive on, it don’t mean nothin’
My children love me, but they don’t understand
And I got a woman who knows her man
Drive on, don’t mean nothin’, and don’t mean nothin’
Drive on
What I remember one night, Tex and me
Rappelled in on a hot L.Z.
We had our sixteen’s on rock and roll
And with all that fire, I was scared and cold
I was crazy, and I was wild
And I have seen the tiger smile
I spit in a bamboo viper’s face
And I’d be dead, but by God’s grace
Drive on, it don’t mean nothin’
My children love me, but they don’t understand
And I got a woman who knows her man
Drive on, it don’t mean nothin’, and don’t mean nothin’
Drive on
It was a slow walk in a sad rain
And nobody tried to be John Wayne
I came home, but Tex did not
And I can’t talk about the hit he got
But I got a little limp now when I walk
And I got a little tremolo when I talk
But my letter read from Whiskey Sam
You’re a walkin’ talkin’ miracle from Vietnam
Drive on, it don’t mean nothin’
My children love me, but they don’t understand
And I got a woman who knows her man
Drive on, it don’t mean nothin’, it don’t mean nothin’
Drive on
Drive On Lyrics as written by Johnny R. Cash
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
