Walter Reed

by Michael Penn

I count the cases piled up high
For the 1:15.
For platform and for passerby
It's the same routine.
I'm ranting while I’m raving,
There's nothing here worth saving.

Tell me now, what more do you need?
Take me to Walter Reed tonight.
Baby I've lost the will for fighting
Over everything.
Well there's a few things I gotta say
And make no mistake, I'm mad…
'Cause every good thing I've had
Abandoned me.

All I want to do is hide.
It's graduation day
And everything I learned inside
Didn't seem to pay.
I've had my fill of palm trees
And lighting up Grauman's Chinese.

Tell me now, what more do you need?
Take me to Walter Reed tonight.
Baby I've lost the will for fighting
Over everything
And there's a few things I gotta say.
Make no mistake, I'm mad.
'Cause every good thing I had
Abandoned me.

A sad and lonesome me.

I'm the walking wounded
And I'd say it to your face
But I can't find my place.

So tell me now, what more do you need?
Take me to Walter Reed tonight.
Baby I've lost the will for fighting
Over everything
And there's a few things I gotta say.
Make no mistake, I'm mad
'Cause every good thing I had
Abandoned me.

A sad and lonesome me.
A sad and lonesome me.
A sad and lonesome me.


This song contains an extended metaphor that compares a dejected man frustrated by fighting with his partner to a wounded soldier. "Walter Reed" is an allusion to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is part of a health care system operated by the U.S. Army. A broken heart rarely requires hospitalization, so Michael's request to be taken to Walter Reed is hyperbolic. Given its purpose as a place to heal when the fighting stops, Walter Reed functions as a natural subject for Penn, whose characters frequently beg for respite from love that feels like war.
Though in demand as a composer of movie scores, Michael Penn is still often overshadowed by his brother Sean and his wife, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann.