Sadr City
Corb Lund * Track #1 On Things That Can’t Be Undone
Download "Sadr City"
Album Things That Can’t Be Undone
Sadr City by Corb Lund
Performed by
Corb LundAbout
According to Lund, this song was inspired by a US Army captain he met after one of his shows, who told him the story that ended up becoming this song. While the song itself appears to be about an enlisted soldier rather than an officer, its lyrics still ring authentic.
Sadr City Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Honey, don't tell the boys I been talkin' like this
'Cause I can't have 'em thinkin' I'm scared
Truth is I ain't afraid a'nothin' no more
I'm tired and I just don't care
How many tours is too many tours
My baby she'd like to know
'Cause always there at the back a'my mind
Is that Jody's there when I go
[Chorus]
Never let 'em send me back to Sadr City
Never let 'em send me back
Some shit went down, down in Sadr City
Some shit went down in Iraq
I ain't goin' back
[Verse 2]
Well I was there in '04 when it first got hot
And Muqtada's local fighters emerged
Earned a Purple Heart via Seven-Six-Two
And another later during the Surge
Didn't know nothin' back then, didn't care
It was get it out and kick us some ass
Couldn't tell a Sunni from a Shia from the Kurds
But they educated me pretty fast
[Chorus]
Never let 'em send me back to Sadr City
Never let 'em send me back
Some shit went down, down in Sadr City
Some shit went down in Iraq
I ain't goin' back
[Verse 3/Bridge]
Well it was pretty touch n'go from the very first light
Fiercest action that I'd ever seen
Ambush come and we hadda' dismount
Get busy, fight it out in the streets
Well all hell broke loose, takin' fire from the rooftops
Haji launchin' RPGs
Fightin' runnin' battles with militias in the alleys
Draggin' on and on week after week
Takin' hits at fifty metres from a shrine nearby
But they wouldn't let us light up a mosque
Then our tanks rolled in, real hard real heavy
But they couldn't help the guys that we lost
[Chorus]
Never let 'em send me back to Sadr City
Never let 'em send me back
Some shit went down, down in Sadr City
Some shit went down in Iraq
I ain't goin' back
[Verse 4]
Well I don't know if it matters to the folks back home
But they say they're all supportin' the troops
There's no time anyway to be dwelling on that
Out here thinkin's only for fools
And as long as there's no lack of young man willin'
To ride to the sound of the guns
I'll be waking up dreaming of the Mahdi Army
And of both sides losing their sons
[Final Chorus]
They ain't a-gonna send me back to Sadr City
They ain't a-gonna send me back
My orders came through and babe it isn't pretty
It's Afghanistan instead of Iraq
They're sending me back