Story Behind The Song

This song was triggered by a documentary ("Mon Cher Camarade", presented on Louisiana Public Broadcasting, directed by Pat Miré) about the role played in WWII by Louisiana Cajun French-speaking soldiers as liasons between the Allied Forces and the French Underground resistance fighters. Part of the film included a powerful account of the participation in the D-Day invasion by military units comprised of Cajun soldiers--a battle that would claim many lives of those in the first wave of Normandy Beach landings. This song attempts to represent the fear of soldiers in that first wave, and the horrors that they witnessed as they reclaimed the ground.

Song Description

This song was triggered by a documentary ("Mon Cher Camarade", presented on Louisiana Public Broadcasting, directed by Pat Miré) about the role played in WWII by Louisiana Cajun French-speaking soldiers as liasons between the Allied Forces and the French Underground resistance fighters. Part of the film included a powerful account of the participation in the D-Day invasion by military units comprised of Cajun soldiers--a battle that would claim many lives of those in the first wave of Normandy Beach landings. This song attempts to represent the fear of soldiers in that first wave, and the horrors that they witnessed as they reclaimed the ground.

Lyrics

He turned to look back
From his hole in the sand
Bodies in water that
Never made land

And washed up around
Boot to boot, head to head
They reddened the ground
Blood to blood, dead to dead

The seas had been black
Angry with spray
He'd heard they'd head back
But they sailed anyway

Some Normandy beach
His buddies had said
But they'd never reach
'Cept blood to blood, dead to dead

CHORUS
On that old backwoods farm
He grew up poor
Broken-down barn
Wolf at the door.

Hard times of trying
Just mostly to live
So he knew about dying
But he never knew this

Looked all around then
Which way do we go?
They couldn't tell him
And he didn't know

Slowly he rolled
Road of flesh up ahead
Their eyes now gone cold
Blood to blood, dead to dead

He crawled right and left
Like some made up game
The prize one more breath
Live or die, just the same

Cannons rang from off shore
Then all silence ahead
He looked back and swore
And just shook his head

CHORUS

'Cause above and below
On the beach they were spread
The friends and the foes
Blood to blood, dead to dead
Blood to blood, dead to dead
Blood to blood, dead to dead

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