Glen Campbell Forums

arlw, thank you so much for starting this topic and for sharing your beautiful memorial poem with us.
This poem is a good reminder of the true cost of wars--those persons who sacrificed their lives for their country in the name of "freedom".

Perhaps this is a good time to post Glen Campbell's "The Universal Soldier"? This song is considered a protest song about war. I think the lyrics are very conflicting.
The last verse seems to blame the soldier for fighting: "He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame". Or are the lyrics saying that we all are to blame for choosing war?
I think Capitol Records' ad is interesting for many reasons.


THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER -- 1965 (performed on "Shindig!"]




THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER -- 1980




CAPITOL RECORDS MARKETING AD [Click on the "Glenn" Campbell image once to enlarge the viewing window.]
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For all that that have sacrificed so much to make these United States a safer place for us-thank you all for your Service. This poem is for everyone around the globe-Remember "Freedom IS Earned" and then respected by all and never forgotten!



Freedom Is Not Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

To All the Veterans-thank you for your service