Prolly the best thing Alice in Chains ever did.
I didn’t realize this until tonight that this song was about Viet Fucking Nam. I just loved the metal aspects of it. Now I listen to the lyrics like
Walking tall machine gun man
They spit on me in my home land
and
Got my pills ‘gainst mosquito death
Quinine, to prevent malaria which many of my shipmates refused to take because it gave them the shits. Not me. I didn’t get any side effects.
Who would think a band from liberal Seattle would write and record a song like this?
Jerry Cantrell’s father was in the 101st
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster_%28song%29
gotta say thanks;these were the men that,trained me. and served with ,a wold and surreal,time 4sure
From what I understand it’s about Chris Cantrell’s, the lead guitarist, dad. I believe that’s him in the video.
It’s definitely about Jerry Cantrell’s father and his service in Vietnam as part of the 101st Airborne. His father never talked about the war and it led to estrangement with his son which eventually ended due to this song. Links here: http://teamrock.com/feature/2006-11-15/the-story-behind-the-song-rooster-by-alice-in-chains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster_(song)
Alice in Chains rocks. Their albums Dirt and Jar of Flies are classic heavy rock albums period.