That Man I Shot

I am pretty sure everybody out there has heard of Drive By Truckers by now (especially you Cascada fans), but whether you know them well or not, check out their new recording, 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark'. The Truckers music is an American amalgam of Country, Rock, Blues, and whatever else they feel like trying. BTCD is a little bit more country than their last few outings, but the best song on it is a rocker called That Man I Shot. That was my opinion on first listen.

I am one of those people who doesn't listen to lyrics much, and I made that judgement about the song without paying attention to the lyrics. Then I read them. They are a bit oblique, but not much. It is told from the first person point of view of some who killed someone else, and is having nightmares about it. It is not too hard to view it as being about an American soldier back from Iraq, suffering from PTSD, but that is not explicit in the words. In any case, those lyrics make the song even more powerful, but they probably make it unplayable on commercial radio. Please, folks, search it out.

Here are the lyrics. -TT


That man I shot, He was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me He was trying to kill me
That man I shot I didn’t know him
I was just doing my job, maybe so was he

That man I shot, I was in his homeland
I was there to help him but he didn’t want me there
I did not hate him, I still don’t hate him
He was trying to kill me and I had to take him down

That man I shot, I still can see him
When I should be sleeping, tossing and turning
He’s looking at me, eyes looking through me
Break out in cold sweats when I see him standing there

That man I shot, shot not in anger
There’s no denying it was in self-defense
But when I close my eyes, I still can see him
I feel his last breath in the calm dead of night

That man I shot, He was trying to kill me
He was trying to kill me, He was trying to kill me
Sometimes I wonder if I should be there?
I hold my little ones until he disappears

I hold my little ones until he disappears
I hold my little ones until we disappear
And I’m not crazy or at least I never was
But there’s this big thing that can’t get rid of

That man I shot did he have little ones
That he was so proud of that he won’t see grow up?
Was walking down his street, maybe I was in his yard
Was trying to do good I just don’t understand