‘Pull Out The Pin’ is a song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released on her fourth studio album The Dreaming.
The lyric of the song was based on a documentary about the war in Vietnam and describes soldiers of the Vietcong literally sniffing out their American opponents before killing them.
Cover versions
‘Pull Out The Pin’ was covered by Yuri Kono and Niki Romijn.
Kate about ‘Pull Out The Pin’
We sat in front of the speakers trying to focus on the picture – a green forest, humid and pulsating with life. We are looking at the Americans from the Vietnamese point of view and, almost like a camera, we start in wide shot. Right in the distance you can see the trees moving, smoke and sounds drifting our way… sounds like a radio. Closer in with the camera, and you can catch glimpses of their pink skin. We can smell them for miles with their sickly cologne, American tobacco and stale sweat. Take the camera in even closer, and we find a solitary soldier, perhaps the one I have singled out. Sometimes a Vietnamese would track a soldier for days and follow him, until he eventually took him. This soldier is under a tree, dozing with a faint smile and a radio by his side. It’s a small transistor radio out of which cries an electric guitar. I’d swear it was being played by Brian Bath, but how could that be, way out here on our stereo screen. I pop the silver Buddha that I wear around my neck into my mouth, securing my lips around his little metal body. I move towards the sleeping man. A helicopter soars overhead, he wakes up, and as he looks me in the eyes I relate to him as I would to a helpless stranger. Has he a family and a lady waiting for him at home, somewhere beyond the Chinese drums and the double bass that stalks like a wild cat through bamboo? The moving pictures freeze-frame and fade – someone stopped the multi-track, there’s more overdubs to do.
Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982
I saw this incredible documentary by this Australian cameraman who went on the front line in Vietnam, filming from the Vietnamese point of view, so it was very biased against the Americans. He said it really changed him, because until you live on their level like that, when it’s complete survival, you don’t know what it’s about. He’s never been the same since, because it’s so devastating, people dying all the time.
Kris Needs, ‘Dream Time In The Bush’. Zigzag (UK), November 1982
The way he portrayed the Vietnamese was as this really crafted, beautiful race. The Americans were these big, fat, pink, smelly things who the Vietnamese could smell coming for miles because of the tobacco and cologne. It was devastating, because you got the impression that the Americans were so heavy and awkward, and the Vietnamese were so beautiful and all getting wiped out. They wore a little silver Buddha on a chain around their neck and when they went into action they’d pop it into their mouth, so if they died they’d have Buddha on their lips. I wanted to write a song that could somehow convey the whole thing, so we set it in the jungle and had helicopters, crickets and little Balinese frogs.
I saw a programme with a camera man on the front line in Vietnam. The Vietnamese were portrayed as being very craftful people who treated their fighting as an art. They could literally smell the Americans coming through the jungle. Their culture of Coke cans and ice creams actually made them smell. Anyway, I learnt that before the Vietnamese went into action they popped a little silver Buddha in their mouths. I thought that was quite beautiful. Grotesque beauty attracts me. Negative images are often so interesting.
Robin Smith, ‘Getting Down Under With Kate Bush’, 1982
Lyrics
Just as we hit the green
I’ve never been so happy to be alive
Only seven miles behind
You could smell the child
The smell of the front line’s survival
With my silver Buddha
And my silver bullet
(I pull the pin)
You learn to ride the Earth
When you’re living on your belly and the enemy are city-births
Who need radar? We use scent
They stink of the west, stink of sweat
Stink of cologne and baccy, and all their Yankee hash
With my silver Buddha
And my silver bullet
(I’m pulling on the pin)
Ooh, I pull out, pull out the pin
(pulling on the pin, oh…)
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
Just one thing in it:
Me or him.
And I love life!
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
I love life!
I love life!
I’ve seen the coat for me
I’ll track him ’til he drops
Then I’ll pop him one he won’t see
He’s big and pink, and not like me
He sees no light
He sees no reason for the fighting
With my silver Buddha
And my silver bullet
(I’m pulling on the pin)
Ooh, I pull out, pull out the pin
(pulling on the pin, oh…)
I had not seen his face
’til I’m only feet away
Unbeknown to my prey
I look in American eyes
I see little life
See little wife
He’s striking violence up in me
With my silver Buddha
And my silver bullet
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
I love life!
I love life!
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
Just one thing in it:
Me or him
And I love life!
I love life!
I love life!
Credits
Drums: Preston Heyman
String bass: Danny Thompson
Piano: Kate Bush
Electric Guitar: Brian Bath
Backing vocals: Dave Gilmour
