It really is

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Saw Toby Keith in concert about 10 years ago.

Great show.

Not as good as prime Garth Brooks (1992-greatest show I’ve ever seen except for JORR’s YouTube experience - I joke - this is a lot parenthetical comment - JORR’s show was great also).

(But it wasn’t as good as Garth Brooks)

(I’m done)

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You know me like that.

those two are great, and were perfect for the moment when they came out.

I can only imagine how it would have been to hear those while serving, especially with some alcohol involved

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

American Soldier by Toby Keith is very good also.

_________________
You know me like that.

Change some to a shitload. Generally speaking soldiers aren’t casual drinkers

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Agreed we played that a lot too.

The army was weird. It was all rap or country. I met hundreds (thousands?) of soldiers in my time there and literally couldn’t find someone with similar music tastes to me. EVERYONE listened to country or rap, or both.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

That would be Darryl Worley.

Yeah, that was bad. Didn’t need to hear somebody figuring out how to rhyme something with bin laden.

I didn’t capitalize it intentionally.

_________________
You know me like that.

I’ve always assumed 80s and classic rock had a foothold with the infantry.

_________________

LOL. Well, we could probably get into a social and economic discussion why that is true.

But let’s not.

Thanks for your service, FF.

I mean it. Feeling very patriotic today. 20 years ago was a crazy emotional day.

_________________
You know me like that.

I’m a Dead/Phish/Dylan guy, obviously knew I wasn’t gonna run into a lot of hippies down there, but couldn’t believe I couldn’t even find Led Zeppelin fans. Like, wtf? Who doesn’t like them?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Thanks man. Agreed. I don’t miss serving but man I miss a lot of those guys.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Lack of smart phones and internet and generally not caring about that shit from 2008-2011 means unfortunately I don’t have many pictures from my time down there.

But here’s one of the few I do have taken outside of our barracks. The guy on the right is SPC Evan Utterback. He was a genuine hero. I never got the chance to go overseas but he did two tours there and he saved two guys lives after an ambush. He was one of the most interesting, thoughtful guys I’ve ever met anywhere, let alone the Army.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Did you have to get all artsy with the ‘60s Batman angle?

One of my very best friends, greatest guy you would ever meet, went 4 times. He was there to train the Afghan police and military. He was a 20-year guy, retired now from the Army.

He told me what he thought should have been done. I didn’t want to share it because it is not my place. But he thought it could have been done differently.

_________________
You know me like that.

Oh yeah. A lot of bad decisions in that regard, and it wasn’t the guys making those decisions paying for them. Wish he would’ve been in charge

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Me too.

And not just because we used to smoke Swisher Sweets like we were cool on weekends in high school in his Buick Century.

_________________
You know me like that.

Was always partial to the grape swishers in my youth

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Do you recall if Evan was a Hoosier? There is an older guy names Utterback who does ag commodity trading info/recommendations weekly on our local early morning ag TV show, it's not a common surname.

Look at you guys dropping the big bux for some Coronas! No limes?

Was your friend actually in the Army at the time? I have a friend who did what sounds like a similar job, one year in Iraq and one year in Afghanistan. She is a retired Milwaukee police officer. At the time it seemed kind of dangerous to me, especially for a woman, but she actually didn't mind it over there and loved all the guys she worked with. And the money was unbelievable. I think she got $120,000 without tax the first time and even more when she reupped for a second year. And she didn't spend a single dollar of her own money when she was over there. Plus every month her pension hit her account via direct deposit and just kept accruing until she got back home.

But the thing that kind of sat wrong with me is that we have actual Army guys doing similar shit, guys like FavreFan and they're making less than minimum wage when it gets down to it. I don't begrudge my friend her six figs for spending a year in a hellhole, but it does seem a bit like war profiteering.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

It wasn't a song about 9/11 but the band "Live" released the song "Overcome" right before 9/11 and that song was in all the sad montages.

Here it is: https://youtu.be/jpCa7Ay596M

He was in the Army.

I might have it wrong that it was all Afghan. I’m pretty sure at least 1 tour was in Iraq early on.

But he was definitely in Afghanistan a few times. I remember there were times he couldn’t tell me where he was. He wasn’t allowed.

_________________
You know me like that.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Utterback was from Alabama

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

that might be the best song in the history of songs. Anderson sometimes plays the Big Ears fest down in Knoxville, keeps getting cancelled or I miss out for other reasons. Lineup announcement this week, maybe she'll be back there in March.

re: country / rap in early 2000's -- pre GTA Vice City and Guitar Hero, those games introduced new generations to 80's and classic rock.

I think the first few GTA's shied away from using popular/expensive to license tunes. Once they morphed into Rockstar Games and could afford it/had the clout, they could get licensing deals for all those radio (and beyond) hits you hear in the latter editions of GTA