Johnny Cash

Drive On

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Drive On Lyrics

Well, I got a friend named Whiskey Sam
He was my boonierat buddy for a year in Nam
He said I think my country got a little off track
Took 'em twenty-five years to welcome me back
But it's better than not coming back at all
Many a good man I saw fall
And even now, every time I dream I hear the men
and the monkeys in the jungle scream

Drive on
It don't mean nothin'
My children love me, but they don't understand
And I got a woman who knows her man, Drive on
It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'
Drive on

Well, I remember one night,
Tex and me Rappelled in on a hot L.Z.
We had our 16's on rock and roll
And with all of that fire,
I was scared and cold
I was crazy, and I was wild
And I have seen the tiger smile
I spit in a bamboo viper's face
And I'd be dead, but by God's grace

Drive on
It don't mean nothin'
My children love me, but they don't understand
And I got a woman who knows her man, Drive on
It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'
Drive on

It was a slow walk in a sad rain
And nobody tried to be John Wayne
I came home, but Tex did not
And I can't talk about the hit he got
But I got a little limp now when I walk
And I got a little tremolo when I talk
But my letter read from Whiskey Sam
You're a walkin' talkin' miracle from Vietnam

Drive on
It don't mean nothin'
My children love me, but they don't understand
And I got a woman who knows her man , Drive on
It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'
Drive on

Submitted by

butneveroutgunned On May 13, 2006

Hurt (Nine Inch Nails cover)

Drive on
It don't mean nothin'
My children love me, but they don't understand
And I got a woman who knows her man, Drive on
It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'
Drive on

Drive on
It don't mean nothin'
My children love me, but they don't understand
And I got a woman who knows her man , Drive on
It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'
Drive on

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ButNeverOutgunned

Submitter

2006-05-13 11:05:47

1 Meaning

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by wisewhiz

20y ago

Yet another great Johnny Cash song. I didn't really know about this song until I listened to it on the VH1 Storytellers album with Johnny and Willie.

Johnny said that when he wrote the song, he and June were reading a lot of books about Vietnam. Something he read caught his eye: "There was a group of guys going along and one of them would fall, and there was no time to stop and grieve because they might get shot, so they would say 'Drive on, it don't mean nothing.' But it meant everything...a guy loses his leg, 'Drive on, it don't mean nothing.'"

To me, Drive On is a way of saying, "Don't let anything slow you down, because it doesn't really matter. Drive on. Keep going and don't stop." There are a lot of questions that are left unanswered. Some things just don't make sense. Who cares? Drive on.