The song
was written for the tuned guitar,
but I'll sing it anyhow.
Now when I landed in Vietnam,
I hardly got to see Saigon.
They shaped us up and
called the roll
And off we went on a long patrol
Swappin' lives, swattin' flies
Firein' the odd shot here
and there
The captain called a halt that night
And we had chow by the pale moonlight
A lovely dinner they planned for us
With a taste like a seat on a crosstown bus
Some of the veterans left theirs
layin' in the cans
for the Viet Cong to find,
deadlier than a landmine.
Naturally somebody told a joke
and a couple of the veterans began to smoke.
I took a whiff as the cloud rolled by
and my nose went up like an
infield fly.
The captain,
this blond fellow from Yale,
he looked at me and said,
What's the matter with you, baby?
Well, I may be crazy,
but I think not,
I swear to God that I smell pot,
but who'd have pot in Vietnam?
said, what do you think
you've been sitting on?
These funny little plants,
thousands of them.
Good God Almighty!
Pastures of plenty!
So we all lit up, and by and by,
the whole platoon was flying high.
With a beautiful smile on the captain's face,
he smelled like midnight on
St. Mark's Place.
cleaning his weapon,
chanting something about Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna.
The moment came as it comes to all
when I had to answer nature's call.
I was stumbling around in
the beautiful haze
when I met a little cat in black PJs, rifle,
ammo belt, Dunlop sandals.
Looked up at me and said, What's the matter with you,
baby?
He said, we're campin'
down the pass
And smell you people blowin' grass
And since by the smell you're smokin' trash
I brought you a taste of a special stash
Straight from Uncle Ho's Victory Garden
We call it Hanoi Gold
So his squad, my squad, settled down
Passed some lovely stuff around
All too soon it was time to go
the captain got on the radio
said hello headquarters
Hello headquarters
We have met the enemy
and he has been smashed
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank