The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75205 Message #1318335
Posted By: PoppaGator
05-Nov-04 - 06:59 PM
Thread Name: historical reference: Knee Deep in the Big Muddy
Subject: RE: Knee Deep in the Big Muddy
As I recall, there was a lot of hoo-hah in that previous thread about just which era, or more precisely which war, was being discussed in Pete's lyric.
There's an explicit reference in the lyric to a date in the 40s, which would be WWII, not Korea, but the song was written and sung in the Vietnam era. Along with several others who posted messages to this thread, I've always thought the song was a direct reference to the situation current at the time, with LBJ the actual person meant by the "big fool," but at least one of the correspondants was absolutely insistant that the song could not possibly have been about Vietnam. The argument back-and-forth on that issue got pretty repetitive, but a few interesting points were made for each of several viewpoints, so revisiting the above-referenced thread might be interesting to anyone who hasn't already seen it.