Cold Chisel - Khe Sahn lyrics

I left my heart to the sappers 'round Khe Sahn And I sold my soul with my cigarettes, to the black market man I've had the Vietnam cold turkey, from the ocean to the silver city And it's only other vets could understand 'Bout the long forgotten dockside guarantees How there were no V-day heroes in nineteen seventy-three How we sailed into Sydney Harbour, I saw an old friend but I couldn't kiss her She was lined, and I was home to the lucky land She was like so many more from that time on Their lives were all so empty, until they'd found their chosen one And their legs were often open But their minds were always closed And their hearts were held in fast suburban chains And the legal pads were yellow, hours long pay-packets lean And the telex writers clattered where the gunships once had been The carparks made me jumpy and I never stopped the dreams Or the growing need for speed and Novocaine So I worked across the country from end to end I tried to find a place to settle down, where my mixed up life could mend I held a job on an oil-rig, flyin' choppers when I could But the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend And I've travelled round the world from year to year And each one found me aimless, one more year the worse for wear And I've been back to South East Asia, but the answer sure ain't there But I'm driftin' north to check things out again Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone And only seven flyin' hours, till I'll be landin' in Hong Kong And there ain't nothin' like the kisses from a jaded Chinese princess I'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone