Lyrics

[ARMED FORCES RADIO: REQUESTS FROM THE FIELD]

[INTRO – vintage radio tone, soft static, record cueing]

[Spoken – authentic radio delivery]

This is the American Forces Vietnam Network, Da Nang,
broadcasting from Monkey Mountain
on eight-fifty AM and ninety-nine point nine FM.

This is Specialist Rick...

And I’ve got your back, Vietnam.

[Music kicks in]

[VERSE 1]

I was just another Army kid
Headphones pressed against my ears
Stack of forty-fives beside me
Trying not to show my fear

One request came from Detroit
Motown for the girl back home
Another from a farm boy in Kansas
Who said the nights felt twice as long

[PRE-CHORUS]

So I’d pull another record
Set the needle in the groove
Turn that red light on
And let the music move

[CHORUS]

Armed Forces Radio, requests from the field
Names on a page and stories made real
A song for a sweetheart, a mother, a town
A little piece of home when the sun went down

I couldn’t bring their families near
Couldn’t make the war disappear
But for three short minutes when the music played
Home didn’t feel so far away

[VERSE 2]

Some requests came from a bunker
Some from somewhere down the road
Some were scribbled onto paper
Carried in with somebody’s load

“Play this one for my wife in Georgia”
“One for my folks back east”
“Tell my brother I’m still standing”
“Play something loud for me”

[PRE-CHORUS]

Every request had a name
Every name had someone waiting
And every song that hit the air
Had somebody remembering

[CHORUS]

Armed Forces Radio, requests from the field
Names on a page and stories made real
A song for a sweetheart, a mother, a town
A little piece of home when the sun went down

I couldn’t bring their families near
Couldn’t make the war disappear
But for three short minutes when the music played
Home didn’t feel so far away

[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK – electric guitar, Hammond organ, Huey approaching and passing overhead]

[Spoken – over fading rotor sound]

American Forces Vietnam Network, Da Nang...

This is Specialist Rick.

One more request from the field.

[KEY CHANGE 1]

[VERSE 3]

Maybe it was Boston
Maybe Chicago
Maybe Memphis, Cleveland, L.A.

Maybe one old song from a high-school dance
Could carry a soldier away

Maybe he saw the porch light
Maybe heard his mother call
For the length of one spinning forty-five
Vietnam wasn’t there at all

[CHORUS]

Armed Forces Radio, requests from the field
Names on a page and memories revealed
A song for a sweetheart, a mother, a town
A little piece of home when the sun went down

We were young and far from home
Trying to make it through
And every time that red light came on
I knew who I was talking to

[BRIDGE – building]

Outside, Hueys crossed the evening
Inside, records turned around
Somewhere beyond that microphone
A tired soldier heard his hometown

I never knew who heard me
Never knew most of their names
But I knew why they were listening
And why they asked me to play

[KEY CHANGE 2 – strong emotional lift]

[FINAL CHORUS]

Armed Forces Radio, requests from the field
Every name on that page was real
A wife, a sweetheart, a mother, a town
Waiting somewhere when the sun went down

I couldn’t stop the war
Couldn’t change what we were going through
But I could put a record on

And send a little home to you

[FINAL REFRAIN – music begins pulling back]

That red light came on
The turntable spun
One more soldier waiting
For one more song

[Spoken – full station sign-off over music]

This is the American Forces Vietnam Network, Da Nang,
broadcasting from Monkey Mountain
on eight-fifty AM and ninety-nine point nine FM.

This is Specialist Rick...

And I’ve got your back, Vietnam.

[OUTRO – Hammond organ and emotional electric guitar]

One more request
One more song
One more little piece of home

From Monkey Mountain
To wherever you were listening...

One more little piece of home.