Released July 1971 Length 4:14 Writer(s) John Prine | Genre Folk music Label Atlantic | |
Recorded American Recording Studios, Memphis, Tennessee | ||
"Sam Stone" is a song written by John Prine about a drug-addicted veteran with a Purple Heart and his death by overdose. It appeared on Prine's eponymous 1971 debut album. The song was originally titled "Great Society Conflict Veteran's Blues".
Contents
The most familiar refrain in the song is "There's a hole in daddy's arm, where all the money goes."
The song is usually interpreted as a reference to the phenomenon of heroin or morphine addiction among Vietnam war veterans. (An identical surge of addiction followed the Civil War, where morphine addiction was known as 'Soldiers Disease'). The song does not mention the Vietnam War, saying only that Sam returned from "serving in the conflict overseas." There is a single explicit reference to morphine but Prine alludes to heroin on several occasions including the use of the term "habit," slang commonly associated with heroin use, and the line "he popped his last balloon," very likely referring to one of the ways in which street heroin is commonly packaged – in small rubber balloons.
Mentions in Print
Time magazine July 24, 1972 [1]
"Sam Stone" ranked eighth in a Rolling Stone magazine poll of the ten saddest songs of all time.
Allusions to "Sam Stone" in other songs
Parts of the melody of "Sam Stone" were used by Roger Waters in the opening of "The Post War Dream," a song on Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut. The song is indirectly referenced in "Cop Shoot Cop...", which closes Spiritualized's 1997 album, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space – the lyrics "There's a hole in my arm where all the money goes/Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose," are almost identical to the memorable refrain of "Sam Stone."