Single:
Sky Pilot entered the Australian singles chart* on 2 March 1968 and peaked at #7. It was #63 on the Top 100 of 1968.
Album:
The song is on The Twain Shall Meet.
Songwriters:
Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, Danny McCulloch
Producer:
Tom Wilson
Record label of Australian release:
MGM
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Sky Pilot on a Vancouver television music show, Let’s Go, in 1968:
Songfacts:
The song finds the chaplain telling the soldiers that they are fighting for a greater cause, as they are “soldiers of God.” At the end of the song, one of the soldiers returns from battle and realises the words of the chaplain go against what he learned in the Bible: “Thou shalt not kill.”
Sound effects of fighting, gunfire, airplanes, and bagpipes were used. The pipe band was the Royal Scot’s Dragoon Guards, a Highland regiment. Lead singer Eric Burdon tape-recorded them at a school and used the pipe music during the middle of the song along with war sound effects.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/the-animals/sky-pilot
Lyrics:
He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He′s there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man.
Sky pilot… Sky pilot
How high can you fly?
You′ll never, never, never reach the sky.
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlists Bang a Gong – the 60s and Bang a Gong – rockin’ the 60s & 70s
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