Flying Dutchman (music video)

A song about a legendary Huey pilot in Vietnam called the Flying Dutchman.

For some reason, civilian medical rescue "medevac" helicopter pilots, and especially medevac pilots who flew in Vietnam, are powerful, inspiring symbols to me.

When I was growing up, I'd stand outside looking up at the summer sky, and realize that I was not just looking at the flat "roof" of the sky, as if it were a painting, but that I was looking "out" into eternity. This realization of eternity was a heart metaphor for a glancing inward, and this was how I would describe my sense of God, there but somewhat distant, but not necessarily a person.


Things were pretty turbulent for me in high school; I came to a spiritual transition and eventually developed a different view of God - my cultural paradigm was sort of classic rock/60's/counterculture, which included the backdrop of war and the desire for peace - and out of this and in conjunction with spiritual searching came a new regard for God. I came to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the idea of a powerful god reaching down in humility and love to make an artistic statement, performance art as it were, to meet us and show what kind of love we can have for each other, through the symbol of sacrifice.

So for some reason the idea of a pilot flying through the bullets to rescue his friends was powerful to me, and the song shows some of my musical influences, including Jimi Hendrix. In my searching in high school, I was influenced by his music, and also by a poem he wrote just before he died:

---

The Story Of Life

The story of jesus
So easy to explain
After they crucified him,
A woman, she claimed his name
The story of jesus
The whole Bible knows
Went all across the desert
And in the middle, he found a rose

There should be no questions
There should be no lies
He was married ever happily after
All the tears we cry
No use in arguing
All the use to the man that moans
When each man falls in battle
His soul it has to roam
Angles of heaven
Flying saucers to some,
Made easter sunday
The name of the rising sun

The story is written
By so many people who dared,
To lay down the truth
To so very many who cared
To carry the cross
Of jesus and beyond
We will guide the light
This time with a woman in our arms
We as men
Can’t explain the reason why
The woman’s always mentioned
At the moment that we die
All we know
Is God is by our side,
And he says the word
So easy yet so hard

I wish not to be alone,
So I must respect my other heart
Oh, the story
Of jesus is the story
Of you and me
No use in feeling lonely,
I am searching to be free

The story
Of life is quicker
Than the wink of an eye
The story of love
Is hello and goodbye
Until we meet again

--

> So the chorus of "Flying Dutchman" wraps it all together I suppose: (A "hot LZ" refers to a dangerous landing zone.)

(Chorus)
Flying Dutchman in a hot lz
trying to land, so he can rescue me
flying through the bullets like a bat out of hell
like jesus christ with rotors and an olive green shell