Songs About Vietnam War Part II

Subject: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Allan C.
Date: 03 Feb 00 - 10:52 AM

The first part of this thread was getting a bit long, so here is an extension.

The original thread can be found here.

Subject: Lyr Add: MEMORIAL DAY (David Cowan)^^
From: DebC
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 03:14 PM

My ex-husband wrote a song called "Memorial Day". It appears on our album, "A Dram For the Singer".

MEMORIAL DAY
(David Cowan)

I suppose there was a time when I thought that war meant honor
That it mattered what you fought for, made a difference if you won
But I guess even my father's war was not the kind in stories
Even though it was the good war
Even though they had some heroes
Even so, the things that mattered weren't so easy when it was done

I went off to my war with a hero's words still ringing
Asking not what I was getting, wanting part of something
grand And I thought that if I worked hard and did everything they asked me to
I could really make a difference
I could save what needed saving
I could prove what needed proving
And then things would be ok

I guess what I remember most was always being dirty
Always feeling homesick and always feeling tired
And there were a couple of friends of mine that taught me about honor
In a war that had no heroes
And in places that are nameless
Even though it didn't matter if we lost or if we won

It seems to me as I look back, the best ones didn't make it
What that makes the rest of us, I really couldn't say
But I know that if the tables turned and it was me they were remembering
I would not wish them sorrow
I would want them to be happy
I would need them to live for me
And if they had to shed some tears
Just a few on Memorial Day

--

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 04:44 PM

I was just watching a TV programme about war and technology, and it was talking about the use of "Agent Orange" in Vietnam.

I knew already that the US government has always refused to pay any kind of compensation to the Vietnamese civilians who are still dying from this, and the children still dying and being born to die disabled by this.

But what I hadn't realised is that servicemen who died because of illnesses they contracted while handling it are not included on the wall war memorial, and permission for a supplementary memorial nearby. (And they had been told it was harmless to humans, both to them and the people they were dropping it on.)

I think I came across a song about Agent Orange somewhere. But I can't remember where.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 08:43 PM

I once heard a song taught to me by a friend who served in that war. The music was to the tune of "Movin' On". I later saw partial lyrics written by that most prolific of writers "Unkown" they went: The MacNamara line is a hunmdred miles long, It's completely surrounded by Viet-Cong. I'm moving on. I've never seen the rest of the lyrics but it ranks as a true folk song even if it is a parody. We seem to be really good at the parody thing. Later all, Neil

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Mary G
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 01:34 AM

why would anyone say it was a war with no heroes? I was at a meeting with a few dozen of them just tonight.

mg

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 06:13 PM

Mary G; Thank You! Being a Vietnam era veteran hand having many friends and a few relatives who spent time in country, it is refreshing to hear someone say that! All too often one hears of the "crazed" vet. Like any experience there were good and bad people involved on both sides. We don't hear about people like John McCain until they run for office but the man spent five years under brutal conditions. All too often we don't hear about the nameless individuals who gave their all for our country. I'm rambling so I'll close, thanks again, Neil

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Biskit
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 07:30 PM

Take down the silver star mother,put up the blue one insted your son just got hit by a morter,and it took off his whole freakin' head. Or on the holidays we'd sing,Jingle bells, shotgun shells there's v.c. in the grass take your merry chritmas and shove it up your @##!I hope none of you were offended by the lyrics me and the buds made up so long ago but we figuered even a bittersweet laugh was better than none at all,peace-Biskit-

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 07:30 PM

"Like any experience there were good and bad people involved on both sides." Americans and Viet Cong.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: DebC
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 07:46 PM

MG said: "why would anyone say it was a war with no heroes?"

I spoke to David, author of "Memorial Day". He said that his line "in a war that had no heroes" was meant to mean the ones with the name recognition like JFK, MacArthur, or Eisenhower from past conflicts. I thought that is what he meant, but I wanted to make sure :-)

I think that we all agree that the thousands of men and women who gave their lives and their souls (as my ex-husband did) in that war are the real heroes.

Cheers, Deb

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: CamiSu
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 04:33 AM

McGrath-- the song you mentioned may have been the one by Kate Wolf (not sure if she wrote it and I don't want to go down to the house to look--sorry)with the line

I just found out this morning The doctor told me so They killed me in Vietnam And I didn't even know

It goes into the troubles with his kids' learning disabilities and his own problems and how they all go back to Agent Orange.

Big Mick. Spaw. ALL of you who have posted to this one. Thank you. I was on the tail end of that generation, and so didn't have so many I knew go over, but every day I pray to keep our (all of our) children safe from the horrors of war, and pray for the children there now. There HAS to be a way to end this madness.

I too would like to see a play from this. Our local theater group would put it on in a heartbeat.

Cami Su

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: L R Mole
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 12:25 PM

Hm. Last night I was trying to frame a note to those I read yesterday who stormed out of the threads trailing sniffs of elitism and trivialization. And today I sit at the end of all this thought and heart. I'll just take this seat at the back of the choir, if nobody minds...

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Colwyn Dane
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 02:28 PM

Irish Sergeant,

I came across one called "Moving On" which was about service during the Korean War and it has lines like:

See an old leave train coming down the track,
An Aussie on the front and a Yankee on the back.

(Chorus}
I'm moving on; I'll soon be gone.
I'd like to stay but the MP's say:
'Keep moving on.'

Toodle-pip.

Subject: Lyr Add: BROTHERS IN ARMS (Mark Knopfler)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 04:59 PM

One that noone has mentioned so far is this one, by Mark Knopfler - and here is a link to a site with a Real Audio of the song.

BROTHERS IN ARMS
Written by Mark Knopfler
As recorded by Dire Straits on "Brothers in Arms" (1985)

These mist covered mountains – Are a home now for me,
But my home is the lowlands – And always will be.
Some day you'll return to – Your valleys and your farms,
And you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms.

Through these fields of destruction, – Baptisms of fire,
I've witnessed your suffering – As the battle raged higher,
And though they did hurt me so bad – In the fear and alarm,
You did not desert me, my brothers in arms.

There's so many different worlds,
So many different suns,
And we have just one world,
But we live in different ones.

Now the sun's gone to hell, – The moon riding high.
Let me bid you farewell. – Every man has to die.
But it's written in the starlight – And every line in your palm:
We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

No specific mention of Vietnam, and in fact it isn't about that any more than so many other wars. But I love its ambiguity - you can read it several ways. I read it as a tribute to the soldiers of the other side in some messy Vietnam type war - the idea being that, in a sense, the people you are fighting can be far closer to you than the people back home, because of shared experience.

But even if that is the meaning, it's not the end of the story - because it's left totally open to the listener to decide which side they imagine "the singer" as fighting on. And that is perhaps the real point.

Subject: Lyr Add: Rose of Vietnam^^
From: mg
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 09:51 PM

I think Johnny Cash has perhaps the best one...sort of a talking blues...it is on his American something CD...he was there actually as an entertainer I guess...

---

well, here is another one I wrote...for all the women who were there..I have lots for the men too..

remember, women does not only equal nurses..many more women served...

first line by Kipling and will try honest to put the little symbol in..

Rose of Vietnam...

Tell me how a rose can bloom and be a bud again
Tell me how it really was and how it might have been
Show me how such beauty grows from such a bitter thorn
And I'll show you a rose so true that bore what must be borne..

Red is for the blood we shed and white for those who died
Orange for the living fear that feeds on us inside
Pink is for a woman's heart that was not meant to break
And yellow for the friends we swore we never would foresake

When the call came to their ears it was both soft and low
Womenfolk leave off your fears it is your time to go
Some were forced to bloom too soon some withered on the vine
Some were cherished some have perished some were left behind

It was not so just long ago in other days and climes
I say to you that roses grew in all our troubled times
She might be right before your eyes the woman no one knows
Look in the garden where you stand there blooms a lovely rose..
Look in the garden where you stand there blooms a lovely rose..

mg

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Clifton53
Date: 19 Jul 00 - 01:11 AM

Johnny Cash's song is indeed simple and beautiful, and from a warrior's retrospective point of view. The title is " Drive On".

The chorus is,

Drive on, it don't mean nothin', My children love me but they don't understand, And I got a woman who knows her man, drive on' It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin', Drive on.

Clifton53

Subject: Lyr Add: WEAPON OF PRAYER (Louvin Brothers)^^
From: rangeroger
Date: 19 Jul 00 - 02:20 AM

Mark Knopfler also did a song on the "Notting Hillbillies" CD called:
"Weapon of Prayer"

In that land across the sea
There's a job for you and me
Though our presence there may not be found
We must stay standing there on the battle lines and pray
We must never lay our weapons down.

Chorus:
We don't have to be a soldier in a uniform
To be of service over there
While the boys so bravely stand with the weapons made by hand
Let us trust and use the weapon of prayer

Many thousand miles away someone shed their blood today
With a heart so true and brave they're gone
To a war that's yours and mine let us join the battle line
With a weapon that will save our home

Chorus;

And when the planes and tanks and guns have done all that they can do
And the mighty bombs have rained and failed
Still the helful hand above, on the weapon made of love
And against him none on earth prevail

Chorus x 2

Composer: I. Louvin/ C.Louvin

rr

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jul 00 - 02:45 AM

Dammit, I still can't be coherent abut this. Will there come a time when I will be able to? And,I did not even serve, just protested and lost friends, family and lovers. Dammitall. But it is OK to those of you who have refreshed this topic..........we all HAVE to rememeber.

I recently lost a friend who was this couty's last surviving WWI veteran. He was 104. He still did this when he talked about/was asked about that Great War, and it was much more "Just" than VietNam, if any war can be considered "just".

Goodight now.

Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT (John McCutcheon)^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 03:08 AM

I came across this song today on John McCutcheon's Signs of the Times and it really struck me.
-Joe Offer-

---

Lament
words and music by John McCutcheon

This song is based on all-too-many very true stories.

I'm so glad you came to see me and you brought the baby too
God, it gets so lonesome in this place, there's nothing here to do
Yes, I know I've caused you trouble and I know I've brought you pain
But if I could roll back time, you know, I'd do it all again

Tom and I we met in high school, yes it was love at first sight
He was, oh, so kind and gentle and our young love seemed so right
At 16 I was a mother, 17 became a wife
Tom found some work , we bought a trailer, settled to a happy life

In '69 there came a letter, such a shock brought by the mail
We both understood its meaning: go to war or go to jail
Tom he said, "I ain't no killer, but I love my country, Nan,
"I've got to prove it to myself and to my family I'm a man!"

Lord, we loved all night the day before he left for Vietnam
Everyday there was a letter from my brave, young soldier Tom
Filled with dreams about our future: a big yard, a house and such
Oh, I know the war would change him, but I never guessed how much

Those two years seemed an eternity till Tom came home from war
There was something hard about him that I'd never seen before
And he never once spoke to me all about the things he'd seen
Through at night he'd wake up screaming from some ugly, constant dream

And he never seemed to notice the new things the baby did
And when he'd cry out, Tom would yell, "Come here and take care of this kid!"
Well, he took to drinking heavy and staying out for days
And when I'd ask he'd say "I just need time to settle into ways."

One year passed, we sold the trailer, 'cause no job my Tom could find
We just roamed from town to town in search of work of any kind
I took a part-time job at waitressing and found some homes to clean
Though I had no skills, I paid the bills, but Tom was getting mean

For the nightmares grew more frequent and the sober times were few
And it's when he took to hitting me, I didn't know what to do
I was living with some stranger, an angry broken man
It seemed the gentle boy I'd known and lover had died in Vietnam

And it's two more years he searched in vain for work at any pay
And I never will forget the look he gave me on that day
"This is all your fault!" he screamed and then he lashed out one more time
But it's when he struck the baby, that's when I drew the line

Oh, how he beat upon the bedroom door that I had locked so tight
Little Tommy in the corner was trembling in fright
For though he'd grown up with my beatings, a house in a state of war
Neither one of us had every seen our Tom this way before

The door it splintered open and he started in on me
First he struck me and the blood it filled my eyes, I could not see
He threw me back upon the pillows and my hand fell on his gun
I fired out into my darkness and the awful deed was done

Oh, they took my baby from me and they took me to the jail
There the word I heard was murder, and no one to go my bail
Till some women came to see me, they told me I was not alone
They warned me that the court's abuse would match what I had known back home

Sometimes at night I dream of loving with my young and gentle Tom
Long before he brought the war back home with him from Vietnam
And the hard luck and the liquor cut our young lives to the bone
And we knew that something bigger than ourselves brought down our home

I guess some things are best forgotten, but I never can forget
And some things best left unspoken, but I ain't done talking yet
For, unless you open up your eyes, your arms, your hearts, your ears
I guarantee that you'll be hearing more sad tales like mine for years

JRO

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 11:48 AM

Excellent Joe. A good thought to add it to this fine thread.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: bbelle
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 01:44 PM

I've never heard this one, but like most of the others, it brings the inability to breathe and a hard sigh. You'd think after three decades, it would get a little easier, but it doesn't.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,jaze
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 01:12 AM

John Prine wrote a couple of 'em. One being "Sam Stone"

Subject: Link: Songs About Vietnam War
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 09:21 PM

I just came across a fascinating site:

Songs of Americans in War

It sounds like it should cover all wars, but the only songs I see covered are songs of the Vietnam War. Nonetheless, it's a fascinating piece of work.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 09:54 PM

I've an album of songs written by an old Air Force pilot who flew in Viet Nam. He wrote a version of "House of the Rising Sun" on his knee board coming back from a mission in which his wingman had been blown to bits by a SAM missle.

And if you haven't heard the duo "Holiday and Martin" you've not heard anything about Viet Nam Folk Music. I've one of their albums that I absolutely cannot listen to - 37 years and it never goes away.

For the Veterans in this post I Love You my Brothers and Sisters. For those who fought against the war - Thanks for trying to save some of us.

CarolC said Thanks to me the other day for my service to country in Viet Nam - You are Welcome Carol - and all the others who appreciate the sacrifice made by those who have served and who presently serve.

Jesus Joe - I could have gone a while without seeing one of these. But Thanks for the link - weird assed vets anyway

Steve

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 10:08 PM

There are at least three basic classes of songs dealing with Vietnam: most widely known are composed songs by anti-war protesters and pro-war commercial songwriters. The ones that tell the story, IMO, are the ones sung by the troops that were there.

Check out Digitrad for @Vietnam and/or @Korea

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: twister
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 01:17 AM

I don't know much about the songs but I saw this one painting in a local gallery and I couldn't get it out of my mind. It's this picture of an older man standing by the Wall and his reflection in the Wall is of a young soldier with other soldiers to either side of him reflected in the wall. It's really well done. I think the artist is somebody Teter?? I tried to find it on the internet but no luck. -Twist

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 03:08 AM

Twister, I think this (click) is the painting you're talking about. You'll find a small copy of the image on this page (click) - and, of course, they'll let you buy a print. this (click) is much better.
-Joe Offer, Searchmeister [grin]

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 10:37 PM

refresh - parts 1 & 2

thread that led me into this one


thanks to Big Mick

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 10:57 PM

Anyone mention "Glory, glory, what a helluva way to die?" There's a famous documentary with a clip of a group of soldiers singing it in a kind of manic fashion; it sends chills down your spine, curls your hair, and puts a lump in your throat, all at the same time ...

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 11:07 PM

There's a CD of songs entitled " A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America, 1966-1973." I heard it in my car being played by a university radio station, and called up the announcer as soon as I got home to get the title.

Elmer

A Soldier's Sad Story

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 07:29 AM

In addition to the Kate Wolf song "Agent Orange", there is another on the subject, "Agent Orange (My Country Tis of Thee)", recorded by Larry Long on his CD "Living In A Rich Man's World" - and was featured in the documentary film "Agent Orange - A Story of Dignity and Doubt".

There is also the Flying Fish CD "In Country", folk songs of Americans in the Vietnam War. And recently, there is what I call "retro" CDs, vets recording CDs about Nam. Two of the best are "Voice of America" by Lt Bobby Ross and "Vietnam Blues" by Sarge Lintecum

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 07:54 AM

Getting a lot of current promotion because of the Long Tan memorial, is "I was only 19"

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Scoville
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 10:56 AM

OCMS "Eutaw"

And I'm sure somebody mentioned this already but Kenny Rogers' "Twenty Years Ago". Well, forty years ago now. Used to make my mother cry.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 07:08 PM

Doesn't *anybody* here know any songs from the Vietnamese side?

The only one I've ever heard was the one quoted in Douglas Lilburn's electronic piece "Poem in Time of War".

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 07:51 PM

"The Vietnam Song Book" compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber contains songs written by North Vietnamese. It's out of print but both eBay and Amazon.com have copies listed right now (the one on eBay is cheaper).

Elmer

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 09:00 PM

RE:me myslofe

It is not GLORY it is "GORY"

It is in the DT.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 05:18 AM

link to thread with lyrics and data on Muriel Hogan's song "Agent Orange" and discussion of on-going A/O effects ...


thread.cfm?threadid=47941#717145


Cheers!   R-J

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 08:44 AM

This is really an amazing thread, and I've only sifted through half of it.

The songs I composed and sang were more to do with protesting the war, after returning from my Peace Corps service in 1968. It took some kind of courage to sing those songs at demonstrations, but the threat of personal injury cannot be compared with those who were drafted or had volunteered for this ill-advised War.

However, one of my young friends was permanently crippled by the police as she was dragged down the steps of the administration building we were occupying at Michigan State University. Another protester was run down by a drunk motorist as she was marching on the state capitol.

Some of our most effective protestors were recently returned Vietnam veterans. I can still see the image of five of them, known as the Street Corner Society (guerilla theatre group), white skull face make-up with black crosses and wearing black cloaks, standing silently in front of the Washington Monument that November day in 1969. I only wish we could have done more to have ended that War sooner.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 03:54 PM

Charley, what were the songs you composed? Did you record them? Thanks.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 03:52 PM

There's also a great song that ties Vietnam and Iraq wars - "Ask My Son" by Lawrence Greene; lyrics and free download at askmyson.com

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:41 PM

Oldhippie-

They were your basic protest song, inspired by Country Joe & the Fish, Pete seeger, Malvina Reynolds, and folks like that. I never recorded them but I could dig them up from my archives.

I believe one was called "The Draft Dodger's Rag."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:00 PM

That one at least, from the title, sounds like it's worth a look, mate.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:17 PM

I'd like to get the lyrics, Charley.

Subject: Lyr Add: VIETNAM (J.B. Lenoir)
From: number 6
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:01 PM

"Vietnam" ... by the late J.B. Lenoir

Lord, I got my questionnaire
Uncle Sam gonna send me away from here
Lord, I got my questionnaire
Uncle Sam gonna send me away from here
He says JB you can hide but you cannot run
Now lately you have to be in Vietnam

Sweetheart, please don't you worry
I'm just beginnin' to fly in the air
Sweetheart, please don't you worry
I'm just beginnin' to fly in the air
Now they in Vietnam shootin' 'em down over there
Lord you'll find my body there somewhere

Oh Lord, I wonder
I wonder when will all wars come to an end
Oh Lord, I wonder
I wonder when will all wars come to an end
Now in Vietnam, shootin' 'em down and sayin'
My son Jebra(?) will rise up and fight again

biLL

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:06 PM

no Audie Murphy or Alvin York or Nathan Hale

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 07:22 PM

No...but there was a Tom Caldwell and a Mark Matter and a Louis Albanoese (?) and a Nurse Lt. Duffey who just died and many many more. mg

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: DRAFT DODGER'S FAREWELL (C Ipcar)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 08:55 AM

Old hippie-

Well, I dug it up, dusted it off, and here it is in all its innocence (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

Words by Charlie Ipcar, © 1972
Tune: inspired by Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm"

Draft Dodger's Farewell


Dm-------C-------Dm-------------C-----Dm
I'm leaving Monday morning, headed for the North,
-----------------C----Dm-------------------C-------Dm
'Long a road I've often traveled, while tripping back and forth;
------------C------Dm----------------C-------Dm
I'll cross the old St. Lawrence, roll on to Mon-tre-al
F------Dm-F------Dm-------------C---Dm
There I plan to settle down, give 'em all a call.

Chorus:

F-------------------------Dm---------------C--Dm
Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more, more, more,
-----------------------------------------C-------Dm
Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more;
Dm---------F---------------------Dm----------------C----Dm
Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more, more, more,
------------F-----------------------C-----------Dm
Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more!

Now my draft board's very busy, they work both day and night,
They need warm bodies for our mighty nation's fight,
Well, my body's cold and shivering when I think of all they do,
So I'm leaving Monday morning, gonna leave this song with you. (CHO)

I saw the recruiting sergeant, I asked him for advice,
He said, "The Peace Corps full of Commies, son, I'll find you something nice;
Right here on this dotted line your name you must sign,
Don't ask me where you're going, I just know your luck is fine!" (CHO)

"Sit right down," the doctor said, "Tell me all the news;
Do you love your mammie? Did you ever have the blues?
Tell me all about yourself, how you live your life,
Did you ever wet the bed, and why don't you have a wife." (CHO)

"Now listen, Doc, I had a dream just the other day,
I dreamed that I was a spy for the CIA;
Our President, he says to me, 'You's gonna need both fists,
For I'm sending you down to Lansing Town to look for Communists!'" (CHO)

"I walked into a tavern there, stepped up to the bar,
My steel-trap mind could tell that there was trouble not too far,
Then the whole place exploded, there was Commies everywhere,
I said, 'I'm from the CIA!' They didn't seem to care." (CHO)

"Get your pad," nurse, the doctor said, "I think this boy's insane;
Evil spirits have infused the soft spots in his brain;
He's obviously insecure, I bet he sucks his thumb;
He's an unpatriotic, no-good, bearded, rotten bum.

So I'm leaving Monday morning, heading for the North,
'Long a road I've often traveled, while tripping back and forth;
I'll cross the old St. Lawrence, roll on to Montreal
There I plan to settle down, give 'em all a call.

Chorus:

        Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more, more, more,
        Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more;
        Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more, more, more,
        Don't want my draft board to worry 'bout me any more!

Peace!
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 03:49 PM

Thanks, Charlie, cool song!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,huw
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 04:21 PM

Try the Ballad of Penny Evans by Steve Goodman ...a simple and very moving song about the damage and the loss caused by the Vietnam War.It has a great last verse which escapes me now.
Huw

Subject: Lyr Add: DRAFT DODGER RAG (Phil Ochs)
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 04:22 PM

I think Tom Paxton wrote the "Draft Dodger Rag" --

I'm just a typical American boy
From a typical American town
I believe in God and Senator Dodd
And keepin' ol' Castro down.
And when it came my time to serve
I knew better dead than Red,
But when I got to my old draft board
Buddy this is what I said,

"Sarge I'm only eighteen
I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse.
I got eyes like a bat
And my feet are flat
And my asthma's gettin' worse.
Consider my career
My sweetheart dear
And my poor old invalid aunt,
Besides I ain't no fool
I'm a-goin' to school
And I'm workin' in a defense plant."

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 04:24 PM

Mighta been Phil Ochs.

Try Paxton's "Lydon Johnson Told The Nation" or "What Did You Learn In School Today" or "I've Never Killed Before." Or Och's "Talking Vietnam Blues."

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Muttley
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 06:06 AM

Hey Catters

You'll probably all hate me for this one, but Billy Ray Cyrus did a "ripper" called "Some Gave All" - it SORT of atones for Achy Breaky Heart - no scratch that; NOTHING but the Lake of Fire could atone for THAT thing. Beautiful song, though - Some Gave All, NOT ABH.

Two Aussie Vietnam songs are:
"I was Only 19" by Redgum (already mentioned) and is a true story about a Vietnam Vet who lost his best mate to a land mine and has spent his own life since in a wheelchair.
The second is by Cold Chisel and is called "Khe Sahn" which tells of the Vietnam Vets 'inability to settle'.
It's a stereotype as many Vets DID settle down again; but there were many who didn't.

I spent 10 years as the 'Padre' to the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club in Australia - started as the Victorian Padre and ended up after a "Mass Run" to Canberra as the National Padre.
In that time (and since) I've had addressed them many times at functions and unveilings, I've married a couple off and unfortunately buried about 7 - one road accident - two Agent Orange victims (Cancer: Non Hodgkins Lymphoma - - - I can still hear the official lines -But guys! Agent Orange is Harmless!!! Yeah, so's Cyanide so long as you don't come into contact with it), The rest were suicides.

The biggest fight I ever had with my dad was over the Vietnam War. He was having a go at my role as Padre and mentioned in passing that "It wasn't a real war".

I went 'ballistic'!!! to put it VERY mildly and began quoting "time spent at front for VV's versus the same figure for WW2 Vets. People got shot and bombed and died, suicide rates, etc etc etc.
- that's a real war
Needless to say - being very articulate - dad was very cowed and apologised (weeks later, of course - and obscurely, but being a stoic Scot, that was to be expected and the best one could hope for) Since that time Dad has been a lot more supportive of Vets and compassionate toward them (one win however small is a good one).

A very obscure song was one written by a mate of mine and was called "God Bless the Vets" and was written, primarily for the VVMC members of Australia.

Anyway; I had two cousins served there, I grew up around Vets, almost every second or third bloke I worked with in the Ambulance Service was a Viet Vet, so I grew up with an appreciation of what those lads did over there and how they have suffered since coming home. They are the salt of the earth and good men and women.

God Bless The Vets.

Muttley

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 09:24 AM

Don't forget Eric Bogle's "The War Correspondent." One of the most powerful songs about Vietnam I've heard.

And there's also "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda." The lines "...But nobody cheered/They just stood there and stared/And they turned all their faces away" gets every vet I know right in the heart.









Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Muttley
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 12:47 AM

Pity that last one's about WW1 though

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 12:56 AM

If you have never had the oportunity to visit the Vietnam War
Memorial or the half-size replica Moving Wall, you should the
next chance you get...

there are literally thousands of stories of Heroes of the Vietnam
War era.

If you visit either of the above Sites, i guarentee you will not come
away dry eyed.

http://www.virtualwall.org/units/hill996.htm

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 08:48 AM

Yes, I've been to The Wall.

And Muttley -- a good song touches chords as long as its sung. Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" is also about WW1 but it speaks quite eloquently to Iraq veterans I know as well as it did when it was published.

If you can get 'Nam vets to talk, as them if they think that Vietnam Veterans were screwed by the government and the American people as a whole -- if "they turned all their faces away."

But this is about music, not politics. I'll ask my brother, who speaks North Vietnamese, if he knows any songs from the Vietnamese point of view.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 09:37 PM

I've been to The Wall as well, and not because I served in Vietnam but we were all a part of the experience.

There's still a mixture of guilt and rage that I feel, guilt that I managed to avoid combat, and rage that others were involved in a costly war that our leaders should never have involved us in.

And it's true that a good song about any war can reach those who are involved in a current war. That's why current soldiers in Iraq are making up new verses to "Revelry of the Dying." God help those who are the rear guard when it comes to the final evacuation.

Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: WHITE BOOTS MARCHING IN A YELLOW LAND
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 09:52 PM

"Draft Dodger Rag" is Ochs, not Paxton.

Then there's:
****

WHITE BOOTS MARCHING IN A YELLOW LAND
(Phil Ochs)

The pilot's playing poker in the cockpit of the plane;
The casualties are rising like the dropping of the rain.
And a mountain of machinery will fall before a man
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land.

Chorus:
Red blow the bugles of the dawn.
The morning has arrived you must be gone.
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls
Like old whores following tired armies.

It's written in the ashes of the village towns we've burned.
It's written in the empty beds of fathers unreturned.
And the chocolate in the children's eyes will never understand
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land.

Chorus

Train them well the men who will be fighting by your side,
And never turn your back if the battle turns the tide,
For the colors of a civil war are louder than commands
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land.

Chorus

Blow them from the forest and burn them from your sight
Tie their hands behind their backs and question through the night
But when the firing squad is ready, they'll be spitting where they stand
At the white boots marching in a yellow land.

Chorus

The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage.
The raw recruits are lining up like coffins in a cage.
Oh! We're fighting in a war we lost before the war began.
We're the white boots marching in a yellow land.

Chorus

© Phil Pchs

and also
****

JIMMY CLAY
(Patrick Sky)

When you walk down the street, who will follow you?
Six o'clock, it's getting late.
The moon it is rising as the sticky dew
Molds on the ground by the gate.

With your rifle on your shoulder as you walk along
Listening to your boot-heels hit the sod
Smoking your cigar as you hum a song
Thinking of your mother, and your God

Ah, but you're alone, Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and you earn your pay.
And fifteen thousand soldiers are marching by your side
Still, you're alone, Jimmy Clay.

Remember New York town, good old New York town?
The friends, the drinks, the cops and all
And the whores who took your money when you couldn't stand
And all the roaring nights you can't recall?

And remember Alice Fay, good old Alice Fay?
She'd been through life at least ten times around
And when she said she loved you, well she meant it, boy
Remember the night you nearly drowned?

Ah, but you're alone, Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and think of yesterday
But yesterday don't matter when it's gone away
Where did it go, Jimmy Clay?

So as you lie in the mud, who will talk to you?
Nobody, Jimmy Clay
And after you're gone mankind follows after you
Doesn't it, Jimmy Clay?

And your face is growing moldy where they kissed your cheek
And said "Please die for us, Jimmy Clay"
And so you died a soldier and a hero's death
Congratulations, Jimmy Clay.

Ah, but you're alone, Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and earn your pay
And somewhere in the distance, you can hear the fiddle play
But not one note will change, Jimmy Clay

(c) Rabelaisian Music, Inc.
these from the Album notes of Patrick Sky's "Reality is Bad Enough" Verve FTS-3052.,

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PARTY (Phil Ochs)
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 10:12 PM

You're right, Greg, and I realized that about a day or so ago and meant to correct it.

Paxton has enough to hold his own.

I think that this is also about Vietnam and what it did to and what became in America:

The Party
by Phil Ochs

The fire breathing Rebels arrive at the party early,
Their khaki coats are hung in the closet near the fur.
Asking handouts from the ladies, while they criticize the men.
Boasting of the murder of the very hands that pour.
And the victims learn to giggle, for at least they are not bored.
And my shoulders had to shrug
As I crawl beneath the rug
And retune my piano.

The Hostess is enormous, she fills the room with perfume,
She meets the guests and smothers them with greetings.
And she asks "How are you" as she offers them a drink,
The Countess of the social grace, who never seems to blink.
And she promises to talk to you if you promise not to think.
And my shoulders had to shrug, as I crawled beneath the rug
And retune my piano.

The Beauty of the hour is blazing in the present,
She surrounds herself with those who would surrender.
Floating in the flattery she's a trophy-prize, caressed.
Protected by a pretty face, sometimes cursed, sometimes blessed.
And she's staring down their desires, while they're staring down her dress.
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

The egos shine like lightbulbs, so bright you cannot see them,
Blind each other blinder than a sandbox.
All the fury of an argument, holding back their yawns,
A challenge shakes the chandeliers, the selfish swords are drawn.
To the loser go the hangups, to the victor go the hangers-on.
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

They travel to the table, the host is served for supper,
And they pass each other for salt and pepper.
And the conversation sparkles as their wits are dipped in wine,
Dinosaurs on a diet, on each other they will dine.
Then they pick their teeth and they squelch a belch saying:
"Darling you tasted divine."
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

The Wallflower is waiting, she hides behind composure.
She'd love to dance and prays that no one asks her.
Then she steals a glance at lovers while her fingers tease her hair.
And she marvels at the confidence of those who hide their fears.
Then her eyes are closed as she rides away with a foreign legionnaire.
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

Romeo is reeling, counting notches on his thighbone,
Searching for one hundred and eleven.
And he's charming as a child as he leads them to the web,
Seducing queens and gypsy girls in the boudoir of his head.
Then he wraps himself with a tablecloth and pretends he is a bed.
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

The party must be over, even the Losers are leaving.
But just one doubt is nagging at my caustic mind:
So I snuck up close behind me and I gave myself a kiss,
And I led myself to the mirror to expose what I had missed.
There I saw a laughing maniac who was writing songs like this.
And my shoulders had to shrug, etc.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 07:51 AM

Rapaire: You are absolutely 100% correct. A good song does, indeed speak to the heart irrespective of whichever battleground the lyrics refer to.

I have a habit of singing "No Man's Land: The Green Fields of France" with the peculiar emphasis on vocals as done by 'The Dropkick Murphy's' - not as Bogle himself does it (Though I am truer to Bogle's lyrics than the 'Murphy's' are) and then relating it to the young men who have since served in more recent conflicts up to and including Iraq Mark II.

My daughter's partner is also a 'Vet; but of Somalia - he arrived in 'The Mog' (Mogadishu) about 3 - 4 weeks following the events depicted in "Blackhawk Down" and his regiment virtually stepped off their plane and into a shit-fight.

I have always said I had no desire to visit the US - simply because there was nothing there that really attracted me EXCEPT to visit: the American Museum of Natural History in New York (for the dinosaur hall); The Grand Canyon and Dinosaur National Park and maybe one or two dinosaur quarries in the Mid-West(though I'm more attracted by the dinosaur sites of Canada).
But in the past decade I have had an increasingly HUGE drive to visit 'The Wall' in Washington DC as well - if only in homage to my Aussie Viet Vet mates and their 'Yank' counterparts.
One of the most moving images I have ever seen and one which can still bring me to tears in an instant (I'm feeling teary as I write this now, thinking about it) is a bandanna, jeans and jacket-clad old Vet leaning against the wall with his right hand peering at names and instead of his reflection, there is the image of one of his dead mates clad in his 'Jungle Greens' standing inside the wall itself with his left hand upraised palm-to-palm with his reminiscing / grieving mate who has to go on carrying the load.

God Bless the Vets - ALL of 'em

Muttley

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 09:10 AM

Yeah, I know the picture, Muttley. All vets carry that load, all vets, whether in combat or not, touch those who died there. That's the purpose of The Wall -- the dead touching the living.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Huw
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 11:07 AM

How about remembering the one million Vietnamese peasants and townspeople who were killed in the war...and the many others who were maimed,tortured,or displaced.The Vietnamese called it the American War and they are still suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, environmental damage, scattered munitions and landmines and the pyschological and cultural damage of the war etc.
Huw

Subject: Lyr Add: NAME ON A WALL (Sharon E. Abbott)
From: SharonA
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 02:23 PM

Here's one of the three songs I've written about it (PM me if you want a recording)...


NAME ON A WALL

All you are, after all, is a name on a wall,
Just a name between names on a stone.
Yet somebody may come who will find himself numb
To the numberless names save your own
And his eyes will there linger, he'll reach out a finger
Across the dark letters to crawl
Just as others have traced other names they have faced
With the fingers they've touched to the wall.

Though your name is asleep on a black granite sheet,
You awake in the minds of your friends
Who have all come to call to read names on a wall
Just to see who has come to his end
And they stand, swapping stories concerning the war
And the dead man they fondly recall.
They're a fitting memorial, warm and corporeal
At the cold stone of the wall.

Through the twistings of fate, I was born years too late
To know anyone's name on the list.
If the two or three veterans whom I have met
Are an inkling of what I have missed,
Then, name, I mourn for you and the other names, too,
For these vets are the best of us all
And I wish I knew why the best flew off to die
And to chisel their names on a wall.

There's no man who dares tell me the depths of the hell
He had plumbed with you there in that fight
So I'm left in the dark till an offhand remark
Brings another grim detail to light.
When the veterans too are as lifeless as you are,
Who'll know then what caused you to fall?
Who will know you as more than just some man of war
Who became just a name on a wall?

Copyright 1998 Sharon E. Abbott    All rights reserved

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 02:49 PM

Whether the article here on Hanoi's 300,000 MIAs is true or not I can't say. I can only know of my friends.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 06:49 PM

Huw - does that figure count the (well over) 400,000 peasants, townspeople etc that were butchered by the North Vietnamese for "collaborating" with the westerners.
Australian troopers regularly came across villages and paddies in their patrol zones where NVA and VC operatives had come in ahead of them and slaughtered every living thing (down to the bloody oxen, goats and pigs) because that village was not seen to be 'oppositional' to the 'invaders'.

Remember these things:
1. The American and Australian lads who served in Vietnam were predominantly draftees and conscripts (to use the relevant terms for eacg nation) - they weren't there because they wanted to be.
2. The forces of those two countries were there because the government of Sth Vietnam ASKED for that military assistance.

Finally - does your "over 1,000,000" figure count the retributive slaughter that took place all across Sth Vietnam following the withdrawal of those same Aussie and US soldiers. hundreds of thousands were butchered after the fall of the South post withdrawal in 1975 - especially in places like Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Hue, and the coastal and 'R&R' bases the Aussies used such as Phan Rang and Vung Tau.

Frankly, it was probably people like yourself that threw blood, excrement and red paint on returning soldiers and called them 'Baby Killer'.
No one denies the death of Vietnamese non-combatants and no-one regrets the occurrence more than those sent to try to stem the "Communist Threat" as it was seen at the time in government eyes. However, don't villify or denigrate the poor bastards on the ground for things they had little control over - yes My Lai was an outright massacre by westerners - no-one is making excuses for that. But for every My Lai (and that was the worst of only a few incidents) there were literally HUNDREDS of such massacres by NVA and VC soldiers.

If you will - watch the film "Rules of Engagement". In this movie, Samuel L Jackson's character is put on trial as a scapegoat for a massacre in a Middle Eastern city which occurs during an Embassy 'Hot Extraction'. He is being set up by an unscrupulous government official. In the course of trying to destroy his character, an ex-North Vietnamese officer is brought in to give evidence that during an earlier tour of duty as a young Marine Lieutenant in Vietnam, Jackson's character executed an unarmed radio operator to force his superior officer (the ex NV officer brought in) to break off contact - it worked.
However, Tommy Lee Jones' character, defending Jackson's, then asks the ex-NVA Colonel "Would you have done the same thing in the same circumstances?" After the suitable dramatic pause, the ex-colonel answers "YES".
Though the film is fictional, THAT INCIDENT was a documented one!

Since you are so concerned about the "1,000,000 innocents" how about saddling up something closer to home to ride - I am guessing from the spelling of your name you are Welsh (read, British): If that's the case - when is Britain going to reparate the over 100,000 who perished in the Dresden bombings and firestorms, not to mention Cologne, Munich etc. Oh, sorry - they were the enemy! Those people who never used or picked up a gun, fired an AA weapon, manned a searchlight and who were too cowed by a system based on terrorising its own people to be even capable of resisting it.

People in glass houses. Huw.

This dialogue was NEVER about innocent victims - it was about music and the people close to us who lived the experience and are STILL suffering from it. Yes Vietnamese people are still dying as a result of Agent Orange - so did my two mates for whom I had to conduct the burial / funeral services. So did the baby girl - daughter of a Viet Vet who helped load and unload Agent Orange in Phan Rang and got it splashed on himself - whose severe birth defects were the result of genetic disturbance as a result of Agent Orange poisoning - she was also my God-daughter. Try conducting a burial for your own God-child whose death was the result of government irresponsibility 30 years ago and remain detached. There are still innocent victims dying and killing themselves due to Vietnam today all across America and Australia.

Have I said enough - probably TOO much.

Muttley

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 06:59 PM

Now you can see why I was Padre to the Vets over here - I am passionate about their plight and VERY protective of them.

BTW - average suicide rate among returning Vets from all wars in the 20th Century up to and including Vietnam - approximately 6%

Suicide rate among returning Vets NOT including Vietnam Vets: 3-4%

Suicide rate among Vietnam Vets: between 12 and 15%

Austaralia lost about 520 KIA in Vietnam - in the years since, more than 5,000 have suicided - that's ten times as many KIA. NO other war can claim THAT kind of retributive factor on its Vets - not even the horrific and barbaric World War One - though it's KIA rate was appallingly high and unnecessary.

Muttley

Subject: Lyr Add: BIG TIME IN THE JUNGLE (Old Crow Medicine
From: GUEST
Date: 30 May 08 - 03:18 PM

Thanks to Mick for that stunning post in the first thread. Yep.



>From: Scoville
>Date: 05 Dec 06 - 10:56 AM

>OCMS "Eutaw"

This is Old Crow Medicine Show and the song is "Big Time In The Jungle" (they have an album called Eutaw as well which could be confusing. This track is from O.C.M.S. )

Down in Eutaw, Alabama in 1965
A young man 'bout 21, no different than you or I
He's catchin' catfish, and gettin' drunk
But Uncle Sam called, he called him up
Sent him out to Vietnam
That young man
Got his life turned upside down
Turned his smile into a frown
Robbed that king of his crown
For an ideal he didn't even know about

He was gamblin' at the wagon when that army man showed up
And he flashed that pen and paper
And ol' Flukie he signed up
There's gonna be a big time in the jungle
Gonna be a firefight
Gonna be a rumble
Send me out to Vietnam
I'll fight ten men
I got nothin' left in the States for me
I wanna see the world you see
I know that Uncle Sam needs me
To fight for an ideal I know nothing about

Oh the drop point was dusty and the drill sergeant was loud
And he could not see the corpses for the ragin' dust cloud
Grab your duffle bags, head to the checkpoint
Welcome to Vietnam, boys, you're in for a hell of a fight
Take it from the ones who know
The army moves slow
Hurry up and wait, don't sleep late
And learn to hate your brother
Before you hate your foe

On patrol out in the rice fields, them choppers flew low
Glancing for the hand signal to tell you where to go
Then the bombs started fallin'
And they pounded his brain
And he thought about Eutaw and who was to blame
For sendin' him to Vietnam

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 30 May 08 - 03:19 PM

that was me

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Rog Peek
Date: 30 May 08 - 04:47 PM

PHIL OCHS
Talking Vietnam
Viet Nam
The War Is Over
We Seek No Wider War
White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land

Rog

Subject: Lyr Add: BOONAROO (Don Henderson)
From: mark gregory
Date: 30 May 08 - 05:55 PM

In 1967 Australian seamen manned the Australian National Line M.V.s Boonaroo and Jeparit sailing to Vietnam 'under strong protest'. In the case of the Boonaroo, which had already completed one round trip, the crew's continued hostility to the war in Vietnam, and the friendly contacts they established with Australian troops engaged in the war became a small part of Australian history. Like many Australian unions, the Seamen's Union of Australia was an important part of the attempts to stop the war and bring the troops home.

The seaman and folksinger Geoff Wills recorded this song on the 1968 Don Henderson LP "One Out". That recording is also on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms".

Boonaroo was one of eight Australian songs in the "The Vietnam Songbook", compiled and originally published in 1969 by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber. At the 2003 New York celebration concert of the book and other protest songs (the concert was itself a protest against the new war looming ... the invasion of Iraq), American singer Dan Zanes sang "Boonaroo". So a song written to stop one war was much later used at a concert that was part of the attempt to stop another war!

Boonaroo
A song by Don Henderson©1968 Don Henderson

Chorus 

Oh, who will man the Boonaroo?
Who will sail her, be the crew, 

sailing on the Boonaroo?

Is there food and is there store 
to feed the hungry, clothe the poor?

In this world their number isn't few. 

In her cargo would you find 
any way for one mankind, 

sailing on the Boonaroo?

Is there bandage by the reel? 
Is there medicine to heal? 

Christ knows, there's healing work to do. 

In her cargo would you find 
any way for one mankind,

sailing on the Boonaroo?

Would the hull be filled with material to build,
perhaps a bridge for a world that's split in two? 

In her cargo would you find 
any way for one mankind, 

sailing on the Boonaroo?

Or jam-packed in the hold, 
is there grief and death untold

and asked "Why?" have to answer true.

In her cargo would you find 
any way for one mankind, 

sailing on the Boonaroo?

hear the song online at http://unionsong.com/u260.html

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST, Guest Sue
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 05:14 PM

Hello to everyone here. This morning I started looking up song lyrics and somehow stumbled upon this thread. It was only out of curiosity that I started reading through the postings and was about to quit when I came across Big Mick's post about his experience. Thank you for sharing this story. I was about 11 years old when the Vietnam War started. Although my world was more about Barbies and roller skates there are parts of that time that effected me more than I thought. Music was one of those things and who would have guessed that the old tunes would have a unifying impact on so many.
My older brother went to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Div, Screaming Eagles, yet to this day he will not talk about what he experienced there. He was there after Hamburger Hill so I have no idea where he would have been stationed. He won't tell me. I remember getting a phone call from him one day (I was 14 at the time.) and he told me he had been wounded in the leg and was sent to Ramstein, Germany. He insisted I keep this a secret even from his wife and to this day I'm still the only one who knows this, but I don't understand all the secrecy and he still won't talk about it. He, too, came back a changed man. He used to be a lot of fun to be with and spent time with his younger siblings but when he finally returned home he drank a lot and did drugs to the point it ruined his marriage and many family ties. One thing that really stood out was that haunted expression in his eyes. There were several young men and women from our neighborhood that went to fight in that war. A couple of them never saw their hometown again and more than a few came back wounded but all came back bearing that same look in their eyes. One young man that I remember lived across the street from us. He was so handsome and I remember him as being my first crush. He came home missing both his legs and part of his left arm. I remeber watching his sister pushing him around in a wheelchair and seeing most notably how people reacted to him. Some would smile at him and talk to the sister over his head or they would avert their eyes and walk past, head turned away. Some even crossing the street to avoid him. Then one day he was gone. I didn't see him or his sister and no one seemed to know if he had died or not. But there must have been something in that young man far bigger than what the war had done to him. Because one day he was back. I'll never forget the first time I saw him walk outside on artificial limbs. There was no stopping him then. He worked hard and held on to what the war had tried to take away from him. My other brother, Danny who was a year older than me one day showed me a bracelet he was wearing. It was sometime just after the war had ended in 1974 I beleive, it was stainless steel and was engraved with the name and information of a soldier who was MIA. Danny vowed to never take it off until this soldier was found and he never did. I don't know if the soldier, a Capt I think, was ever found and I can't remember the name on the bracelet. You see my brother was murdered by an unknown assailant at the age of 24 and he was buried with the bracelet. So he kept his promise. Sometimes I wonder about that missing soldier and his family. What they must have gone through all these years. Was he ever found? I would like the chance to tell them that in some small way what he went through touched the heart of a total stranger who carried on hope.
So let me say a big thank you to all who served in the Vietnam war, and sending a big hug along with it. And the same to veterans of all wars. May all of you find peace and please tell your stories as much as you can because there are many like me who truly want to know.

God bless you all.

---

Sue, I got an e-mail today that somebody wanted me to pass on to you. If you like, please contact me by e-mail.
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 05:10 PM

Thank you. mg

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: oldhippie
Date: 27 Sep 09 - 11:11 AM

Curtis Brand has written and recorded a great song "Vietnam Lullaby".

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,mickey
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 06:57 PM

i am looking for the name of a country song that has the words in it (got my first job without trying had to relocate to vietnam) the song come out in the late 80's or early 90's i think can someone please help me find the name of this song thank you mickey

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: olddude
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 07:56 PM

I think it may be called "uncommon Valor" a "Vietnam Story"
google that and check it out

Dan

Subject: Lyr Add: GREY OCTOBER (Peggy Seeger & Jack Warshaw
From: eddie1
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 02:52 PM

I'd forgotten the full words of this song written by Peggy Seeger & Jack Warshaw;

GREY OCTOBER
(Peggy Seeger & Jack Warshaw)
Grey October in Glamorgan
High pitheaps where the houses stand
Fog in the valley, backshift ending
Children awaken in Aberfan

Warm October in Thi Binh Province
Huts of bamboo and rattan
Sun comes up - repair gangs stop
And children waken in Thuy Dan

Pithead hooter sounds from Merthyr
Load the coal in the waiting trams
Shoot the slag down the high pitheap
While children eat in Aberfan

Ox carts rattle down Thi Binh Highway
Work begins on the broken land
Night's work ended, the roadway's mended
Children eat in Thuy Dan

Dai Dan Evans grabs his satchel
Michael Jones his bread and jam
Five to nine and the school bell ringing
Time for school in Aberfan

School bell ringing, children running
Down by the river and across the dam
Hot sun burning, time for learning
Time for school in Thuy Dan

Lessons started in Pantglas Junior
Through the fog a black wave ran
Under the weight of the man-made mountain
Children die in Aberfan

Lessons start in the Thi Binh schoolhouse
And another day began
Bombers fly in the morning sky
And children die in Thuy Dan

Tears are shed for Glamorgan children
And the world mourns Aberfan
But who will weep for the murdered children
Under the rubble of Thuy Dan?

Grey October in Glamorgan
Warm October in Vietnam
Where children die while we stand by
And shake the killer by the hand.

Coincidentally, the Aberfan Tragedy was 43 years ago this Wednesday - October 21st.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: mg
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 03:42 PM

back to the baby killer theme I see. I would hope that people would have more sensitivity on a public forum but my hope is in vain.

Anyway, Johnny Cash did a great talking blues one..I heard the men and the monkeys in the jungle scream. mg

Subject: Lyr Add: GOODNIGHT SAIGON (Billy Joel)
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 03:59 PM

Goodnight Saigon

GOODNIGHT SAIGON
(Billy Joel)

We met as soul mates
On Parris Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho
To lay down our lives

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy
But our bellies were tight

We had no home front
We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ
With all our might

We had no cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together

Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night
And the night
Seemed to last as long ...

as six weeks
On Parris Island
We held the coastline
They held the highlands
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Billy Joel from album "The Nylon Curtain"

Subject: DT Corr: FAC and the Green Beret (Jonathan Myer)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 10:58 PM

Jonathan Myer e-mailed ans asked me to post this. It's his original title and words for the version attributed to "Captain John Meyer (?)" in the Digital Tradition as Friendly FAC and Green Beret. The DT lyrics are closer to the way it was recorded on the Flying Fish In Country CD of songs of US soldiers in Viet Nam.


FAC AND THE GREEN BERET
(Jonathan Myer)

Lima one-niner — this is Green Beret,
We see you flying high above, out of danger's way.
If you can spare a moment to help your fellow man
I wish you'd try to find me, and tell me where I am.

Green Beret, oh Green Beret, this is your friendly FAC,
You see me flying overhead while you're still in the sack.
Still I'll try to help you out and set you people straight,
But hurry, 'cause it's steak night, and I don't want to be late.

Friendly FAC, oh friendly FAC — this is Green Beret,
We appreciate your helping hand to send us on our way.
But I really wish you'd think about our danger on the ground
Tromping through the jungle, while you just FAC around.

Green Beret, oh Green Beret, this is your friendly FAC,
If you no longer need me, I'm going to hurry back.
I'll settle for a souvenir, whatever you can bag,
An AK-47, or a bloodstained VC flag.

   [ Music break ]

Friendly FAC, oh friendly FAC, we've just come under fire,
And if you cannot help us, we'll join the angels' choir,
It's automatic weapons, and we are getting hit,
So hurry with the fighters, 'cause we are in deep shit!

Green Beret, you were cut out, I read you number ten,
The C-Team's telling dirty jokes, so please transmit again.
If you've got Charlie cornered, please don't let him get away,
I've sent a call for fighters, but it may take all day.

Friendly FAC, oh friendly FAC, please get your finger out,
We've tangled with a regiment, of that there is no doubt.
If you can get us out of Charlie's fierce and dreadful grip,
We'll give you FACs a grateful square in our comic strip.

Green Beret, oh Green Beret, this is your friendly FAC,
Let me take some pictures in case you don't get back.
Turn this way a little — hold it, that's the style!
You're on "Candid Camera," so let me see a smile.

Green Beret, oh Green Beret, they're shooting at the FAC!
I hear the bullets whistle by, I hear the rifles crack.
I'm missing my siesta, and I need a glass of foam,
I see my fuel is getting low, I think I'll head for home. . . .

Oh, thank God, our fighters now are circling overhead,
Charlie's going to wish that he had stayed at home in bed;
He's going to meet his Maker in that land that is to be,
We're going to blow his body up and set his spirit free.

   [ Music break ]

Friendly FAC and fighters, I hope you see our smoke,
That first one came too close to us, it really was no joke.
Green Beret, we're holding high, the FAC had got it wrong,
He thought that you were marking the position of the 'Cong.

Fighters, this is friendly FAC, please hold it high and dry,
We can get this straightened out if we all really try.
It doesn't even matter if I mark the friend or foe
'Cause you can't hit a cow's behind, no matter how you go!

Fighters, you're cleared in again, just do the best you can,
The situation's so fucked up it'll take more than mortal man.
Just bomb the general area, and when the smoke clears out
We'll count up all the bodies, and try to sort 'em out.

   [ Music break ]

Now most of us are safe at home, we beat the dreaded 'Cong,
We simply let it all hang out, to help the war along.
Your friendly FAC and fighters will always save the day,
Killing off the Charlies till the last Green Beret.





© 1967/2000, Jonathan Myer. All rights reserved.

Written at Kontum's U.S. MACV compound,
Republic of Viet Nam (RVN); 8 January 1967

Tune: "The Wabash Cannonball."

Then-Capt. Jonathan Myer, USAF
Call sign: "Cagey 82"
O-1E (L-19) "Bird Dog" Forward Air Controller (FAC)

Kontum Province and Project "Tally Ho" (DMZ), RVN
c/o 24th Special Tactical Zone (24 STZ), APO San Francisco 96499

April 1966 to end-February 1967.

---

Notes from Jonathan Myer:

I see you have my song! -- Composed as "FAC and the Green Beret," 8 January 1967, and left behind on several cassette copies (along with all the dirty songs I then knew) for the enjoyment of my fellow FACs and the Special Forces camps in Kontum and Pleiku provinces.

I only learned it had taken on a life of its own when, in 1995, an Air Force acquaintance sent me a copy of [Green Beret] "Bucky" Burruss's book, "Mike Force," which included the words as they were being sung by his troops and FACs during his tours starting a year or two later. The song also made it into Major General Edward Lansdale's collection, thence to Dr. Lydia Fish, Director of her own Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project, with whom I now collaborate on several flying song initiatives. She it was who had Chuck Rosenberg perform it (as a pretty neat talking blues) on her "In Country" tape (now available as a CD from Erosonic.com):
http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs
For the record, I should note that I was not a volunteer for the so-called Vietnam War;* I was flying F-101Bs, the "Mighty Voodoo," in my second Fighter Interceptor Squadron, with (to me) the holy mission of North American air defense against nuclear-armed Soviet bombers, should our Cold War turn "hot." However, as a serving officer, I went when ordered. After maybe three weeks in-country, I became a strong believer in what we were trying to do there -- namely, preserve the Republic of Viet Nam (RVN) from the atrocities of its Viet Cong insurgency and the aggressions of the communist North . . . and I have not wavered from that view since.

Although the "teeny-weeny Bird Dog" was a total opposite from the high-flying supersonic Voodoo, I considered the Forward Air Controller's mission to be the best job I could have had. It ranged from visual reconnaissance to control of air strikes, and when they were in support of "troops in contact" (TICs), we "let it all hang out" to put the fighters in against the VC (or, increasingly, North Vietnamese forces infiltrating the South via the Ho Chi Minh Trail through "neutral" Laos and Cambodia).

The ground troops with whom I worked the most in Kontum Province were our Army's Special Forces, or Green Berets, operating as A-teams throughout the province. In the spirit of our cameraderie, I wrote the spoof above, featuring a somewhat snotty FAC and a somewhat desperate Green Beret on the other end of their radio link. The rest, as they say, became history: my song spread beyond Kontum and Pleiku provinces, and 18 months later (unknown to me, back in the States and my F-101 interceptor) it was being sung by other FACs and "Bucky" Burruss's Green Berets, with their own modifications, much like Mudcat's version from the "In Country" recording of "Friendly FAC and Green Beret" -- the "folk process" at work!

Cheers,
JMyer

* I prefer "Southeast Asia" or "SEA" War as the more accurate term. While almost all our in-theater ground forces operated in the RVN, or South Viet Nam, our air forces (Air Force, Navy and Marine fighters and bombers) flew missions not only over the South but also into North Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia, to take the war to the enemy; hence "SEA War."

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Acorn4
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 06:45 AM

Found a Youtube for this:-



Billy Joel: Goodnight Saigon

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: mg
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 01:06 PM

Best one ..no two..Cobra 7 by Toby Hughes and Pull Pitch Rotorheads by Cliff McK. mg

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Boho
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 11:19 PM

A haunting refrain on this soulful number:

Delia Gartrell - See What You Done, Done (Hymn No. 9)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su64dYnpGt4

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 11:27 PM

mg-
don't just praise 'em----post 'em!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,EK Anne
Date: 25 Oct 09 - 03:47 AM

A song that made a great impression on me was Paxton's "Jimmy Newman", about a soldier awaiting transport from a field hospital; he's encouraging his buddy Jimmy that the helicopter will soon be there for them, but there's little response, until the final desperate call to "Get up, Jimmy Newman" makes it obvious that Jimmy has died.
Paxton's voice was so raw and stripped that the narrative sounded incredibly personal and really spoke to me (a non-American) of some of the terrible realities of that war, reminding me too of all the stories of the necessary and life-affirming comradeship of the poor, bloody infantry in WW1 trenches.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Paul from Russia
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 05:28 AM

Hi there everyune!
Please help me!
I am looking for chords for "Boonie rat song"
And text of "Sitting in the cab of my truck"
Both from "Incountry" album.
Will be very appreciate!
Really like taht songs and wanna play them on guitar.

Subject: ADD: Sitting in the Cab of My Truck (Dockery?)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 06:07 AM

Well, here's what I hear on the "In Country" album:

SITTING IN THE CAB OF MY TRUCK
(Chip Dockery)
(Parody of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay)

Hiding in the morning sun, I'll be driving in the evening calm,
Watching the Phantoms roll in, and I watch them pull away again;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, thinking this life ain't such a game;
Sitting in the cab of my truck, filing my chains.

I left my home in Dong Hoi, headed for the DMZ,
Well, I had something to live for, a Peoples' Hero I was gonna be;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, looking through the windshield at flare-lighted rain;
Sitting in the cab of my truck, yankin' my chains.

[bridge]
Here I sit, having a nicotine fit - God, I'm too scared to get a cigarette lit;
'Cause that might just blow my only hope of not showing up on a starlight (?) scope.

Well, sitting here with britches so tight, 'cause I think that 'spector's (inspector's?) due back tonight;
Bleeding from my ears and my nose, from a Sky Spot (?) that finally came close;
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck, watching the bombs fall through the rain,
Sitting in the cab of my truck, filing my chains.

[whistle]



(Sung by Chip Dockery on the "In Country" album - transcribed by ear) Notes from the album: Another song by Chip Dockery about the North Vietnamese truck drivers on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Sometimes, especially late in the war, the drivers were chained to the steering wheel of their trucks, thus linking the fate of the vehicle and the driver.

---

This page has clips from this and several other songs from the "In Country" album.
This page has longer clips (click).

---

This song didn't make sense to me until I read that it was from the perspective of North Vietnamese truck drivers. I'd don't know what a "sky spot" or "starlight scope" is, so I'm not sure I have those words right.

-Joe-

Joe, a starlight scope was a light gathering scope we used for night ops in 'Nam. It would magnify available light by about a 1000 times, so that a lit cigarette would give away your position. These things were bulky as hell, required moonlight or a source of light, but effective enough. All the best, Mick

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: SITTING IN THE CAB OF MY TRUCK
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 06:49 PM

Wow!!! Thank you so much Mr. Offer!
Thank you so very very much! You really helped.
My drean comes true, now I can play that song!

You have some questions about the text - there are war slang meanings.

Starlight scope – Night vision aiming system AN/PVS-2 used during VN war

Sky Spot – Air strike

Spectre – AH-130, armored and armed with 20mm miniguns, 40mm Bofors guns and night vision system variant of huge 4-engined transport airplane "Hercules", used as "Gunship" for one-side high-rate fire on VC and NVA positions.
Especially in the night.

I have a question, too:
"yankin' my chains" - what it means?

Sorry for misunderstanding, I am Russian so English isn't my mother language.


SITTING IN THE CAB OF MY TRUCK with chords
(Chip Dockery)
That song is parody of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Reading


I am playing that so:

G                     B               
Hiding in the morning sun,
C                               A
I'll be driving in the evening calm,
G                           B            
Watching the Phantoms roll in,
C                           A
and I watch them pull away again;
                     
G                                    Em                        
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck,
G                      Em
thinking this life ain't such a game;
G                            A                        
Sitting in the cab of my truck,
               C    G
filing my chains.

G                         B               
I left my home in Dong Hoi,
C               A
headed for the DMZ,
G                         B            
Well, I had something to live for,
C                            A
a Peoples' Hero I was gonna be;
            
          G                            Em                                                      
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck,
                                                                                 
Em                                           G
looking through the windshield at flarelighted rain;
G                         A                           
Sitting in the cab of my truck,
             C      G
yankin' my chains.


G       D                     C7
Here I sit, having a nicotine fit –
G                   D                   C7
God, I'm too scared to get a cigarette lit;
G                   D                   C7
'Cause that might just blow my only hope
F                                    D   
of not showing up on a starlight scope.

G                                  B
Well, sitting here with britches so tight,
          C                                 A
'cause I think that "spectres" due back tonight;
G                              B
Bleeding from my ears and my nose,
            C                         A
from a Sky Spot that finally came close;
             G                            Em
Now I'm just sitting in the cab of my truck,
             G                      Em
watching the bombs fall through the rain,
G                           A                           
Sitting in the cab of my truck,
                C G
filing my chains.



P.S. God bless the Vets!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Paul from Russia
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 06:57 PM

Thanks again Mr. Offer!
I am really appreciative to you!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 10:29 PM

Hi, Paul -

I think the "chains" have to do with the chains that kept the North Vietnamese drivers in their trucks - see the notes with the lyrics.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 10:44 PM

Links of chains keeping the drivers connected to the steering wheel so they could not get away.

Babblefish.com says "chains" translates to "цепи" in Russian. Please excuse me if that is incorrect. My brother knows Russian; I will ask him in the morning if you'd like.

kat

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,murrbob
Date: 16 Jan 10 - 12:10 AM

The Associations had a very powerful song that many radio stations refused to play. Not sure of the name, but something like "Requiem for the Masses."
    One stanza was something like:
      "Black and white was the newsprint he was mentioned in,
      Black and white were the questions that so bothered him,
      He never asked, he was taught not to ask,
      But were on his lips as they burried him."

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 16 Jan 10 - 02:33 AM

Joe, Kat - my greetings!
Thanx for care and answers.
I know what is chain.
The question is what mean " YANKIN' " ?
(for example I got the sentence from that song "yankin' my chain")
I am asking 'cause in my dictionary there is no word "yanking".
May you can tell me other meaning of that verb?

Kat, outstanding job! Absolutely correct!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jan 10 - 02:49 AM

Hi, Pavel-
To "yank" a chain, means to give it a hard pull.
-Joe-

Subject: ADDPOP: Requiem for the Masses (The Association)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jan 10 - 02:57 AM

Yeah, "Requiem for the Masses" was a good song. this link (click) may play it for you, if I did it right.
-Joe-

Requiem For The Masses
(Terry Kirkman)

Requiem aeternam, requiem aeternam
Mama, mama, forget your pies
Have faith they won't get cold
And turn your eyes to the bloodshot sky

Your flag is flying full
At half mast, for the matadors
Who turned their backs to please the crowd
And all fell before the bull

Red was the color of his blood flowing thin
Pallid white was the color of his lifeless skin
Blue was the color of the morning sky
He saw looking up from the ground where he died
It was the last thing ever seen by him
Kyrie Eleison
Mama, mama, forget your pies
Have faith they won't get cold
And turn your eyes to the bloodshot sky

Your flag is flying full
At half mast, for the matadors
Who turned their backs to please the crowd
And fell before the bull

Black and white were the figures that recorded him
Black and white was the newsprint he was mentioned in
Black and white was the question that so bothered him
He never asked, he was taught not to ask
BUt was on his lips as they buried him

Rex tremendae majestatis
Requiem aeternam, Requiem aeternam

Source:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1330468

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: I WAS ONLY NINETEEN (Redgum)
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 08:56 AM

Thanx for explaining, Mr. Offer!

Another one really cute song 'bout VN war from Australia.

For crazy in VN war songs guys like me I found chords.
That's it,

REDGUM - I Was Only Nineteen(preformed in 1983)

Intro: A, C, G, D, A, G, A.
A                   C                 G         D                         A
Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
        G                       A
(1t was long march from cadets).
A                               C                  G              D         
The sixth battalion was the next to tour and It was me who drew the card.
A                               G          A
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.


Chorus I:
E                                         D                          A
And Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay.
E                                         D                   A            
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean.
F#m                         E                  D          A
And there's me in my slouch hat with my SLR and greens.
E                               D
God help me, I was only nineteen.

A                          C                G             D
From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat,
A                         G                        A
I'd been in and out of choppers now for months.
A                   C                          G                D
But we made our tents a home. V.B. and pinups on the lockers,
        A                 G                 A
And an Asian orange sunset through the scrub.


Chorus 2:
E                                      D                   A
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
E                                        D              A
And night time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
F#m                         E                            D                  
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it
A
means?
E                               D
God help me, I was only nineteen.

A                 C                    G                          D
A four week operation, when each step can mean your last one
        A               G             A
On two legs: it was a war within yourself.
A                               C                 G         D
But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off,
        A                         G                       A
So you closed your eyes and thought about something else.


Chorus 3:
E                                               D               A
Then someone yelled out "Contact"', and the bloke behind me swore.
E                                         D            A
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar.
F#m                   E                     D                         A
Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon.
E                                       D
God help me, he was going home in June.

A                 C                        G                D
1 can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel
       A               G                A
On a thirty-six hour rec. leave in Vung Tau.
A                    C                  G                D
And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle.
A                            G                A
'Till the morphine came and killed the bloody row


Chorus 4:
E                                         D            A
And the ANZAC legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears.
E                                    D                   A
And stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
F#m                       E             D                A
I caught some pieces In my back that I didn't even feel.
E                               D
God help me, I was only nineteen.


E                                      D                   A
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
E                                        D              A
And night time's just a jungle dark and a barking M.16?
F#m                         E                            D                  
And what's this rash that comes and goes,can you tell me what it
A
means?
E                               D
God help me, I was only nineteen.

P.S.: Have questions 'bout military slang - feel free to ask, please!

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: Big Mick
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 08:50 PM

Hi Pavel. A starlight scope was a light gathering scope we used for night ops in 'Nam. It would magnify available light by about a 1000 times, so that a lit cigarette would give away your position. These things were bulky as hell, required moonlight or a source of light, but effective enough.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: DRIVE ON (Johnny Cash)
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 04:50 PM

Drive On
Written by Johnny Cash
Published by Song of Cash Inc. ASCAP

E

E                               E7
I got a friend named Whiskey Sam
          A                              
He was my boonierat buddy for a year in Nam
    B7                                       
He said is my country just a little off track
          E                   B7               E
Took 'em twenty-five years to welcome me back
          E                                  E7
But, it's better than not coming back at all
A                        
Many a good man I saw fall
B7                              
And even now, every time I dream
            E                         B7             E
I hear the men and the monkeys in the jungle scream

|       E                     
|Drive on, it don't mean nothin'
|       B7                     E               
|My children love me , but they don't understand
|    A                E            
|And I got a woman who knows her man
|                              B7    E
|Drive on, don't mean nothin', drive on

I remember one night, Tex and me
Rappelled in on a hot L.Z.
We had our 16's on rock and roll
But, with all that fire, I was scared and cold
We were crazy, we were wild
And I have seen the tiger smile
I spit in a bamboo viper's face
And I'd be dead , but by God's grace

{chorus}

It was a real slow walk in a real sad rain
And nobody tried to be John Wayne
I came home, but Tex did not
And I can't talk about the hit he got
I got a little limp now when I walk
Got a little tremolo when I talk
But my letter read from Whiskey Sam
You're a walkin' talkin' miracle from Vietnam

{chorus}

Subject: Lyr Add: TOUCH A NAME ON THE WALL (Joel Mabus)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 08:49 PM

It's been a long time since I've posted to this thread. I don't think anyone has posted this fine song by Joel Mabus (Michigan):

TOUCH A NAME ON THE WALL
by Joel Mabus
[a new version appears on the Retold album]

Well, I guess you could call it our summer of freedom,
the year that we both turned eighteen -
We hitch-hiked to Denver, fresh out of high school
man, we were sights to be seen.
And that was the year that you dated my cousin,
'Til they took us away in the fall.
And I dearly wish you were standing here with me
As I touch your name on the wall.

Chorus:

Touch a name on the wall,
Touch a name on the wall.
God help us all
Touch a name on the wall.

Every time I come here I wear my fatigues,
to honor the men that I knew.
I touch every name that came from my outfit,
and I read them out loud when I do.
Now some people claim that they all died for nothin',
but I can't completely agree -
'Cause this brother here he didn't die for no country -
He died for me.

[chorus]

Now, usually walls are just made for division
- to separate me from you.
But God bless the wall that brings us together,
and reminds us of what we've been through.
And God damn the liars and the tin-plated heroes
who trade on the blood of these men.
God give us the strength to stand up and tell them -
Never again!

[chorus]

Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE (Merle Haggard)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 10 - 06:42 AM

Hello everybody!
There's the Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee"
As I am playin' it:

INTRO
| |A |A |D |D |


D
We don't smoke marajuana in Muskogee
                           A
We don't take our trips on LSD
A
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
                                     D
Cause we like living right and being free


D
We don't make a party out of loving
                                       A
But we like holding hands and pitching woo
A
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy
                                     D
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do


       D
And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
                                     A
A place where even squares can have a ball
A
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse
                                                 D   Bb
And white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all


       Eb
Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear
                                  Bb
Beads and Roman sandles won't be seen
    Bb
And football's still the roughest thing on campus
                                           Eb
And the kids here still respect the college dean


       Eb
And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
                                     Bb
A place where even squares can have a ball
Bb
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse
          Bb                                     Eb
And white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all
          Bb                                     Eb
And white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all
   Bb          Eb
In Muskogee U.S.A.


TAB: There are two possible ways to tune the guitar.
1. Drop D:   D A D G B D (preferred)
2. Standard: E A D G B E

Intro, drop D tuning

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: OHIO (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 28 Feb 10 - 07:10 AM

Oh s**t, in the last post I forgot to write my nick in...

Whatever, there's another VN war era's song,
performed by my beloved Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young:

"OHIO"

Dm               F       C    Dm             F       C
Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming we're finally on our own

Dm             F         C    Dm            F C
this summer I hear the drumming four dead in Ohio

Gm7                C
Gotta get down to it soldiers are gunning us down

Gm7                      C
should of been done long ago

Gm7                     C
what if you knew her and found her dead on the ground

Gm7                      C
how can you run when you know?

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la    la la la
Gotta get down to it soldiers are gunning us down
should of been done long ago
what if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
how can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming we're finally on our own
this summer I hear the drumming four dead in Ohio
Dm          F C
four dead in Ohio (repeat and fade)

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM (CSNY)
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 28 Feb 10 - 08:37 AM

More of it."Find the Cost of Freedom" (c. 1970)
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young


(play thru once)
Bm / A / F#m7 / Bm
D / A/C# / Bm (A) / Bm


Bm       A       F#m7   Bm
Find the cost of freedom,

D      A/C#   Bm    (A) Bm
Buried in the ground.

Bm    A          F#m7    Bm
Mother Earth will swallow you,

D       A/C#   Bm (A) Bm
Lay your body   down.

(Lyrics repeat lika capella )


Here the chords for the guys
who wanna play but
does not know the chords:

Bm         A            F#m7      D                A/C#
x24432         x03330    242222    xx0232        x4222x


Kinda short but...really moves!!!
I heard that song first time in the movie "War at home"(1996)
Cheers!

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: HELPLESSLY HOPING (CS&N)
From: GUEST,Pavel From Russia
Date: 28 Feb 10 - 08:52 AM

Hi all!
That's me again.
Another one VN era song.
"Helplessly Hoping" by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
From their first Album "C,S & N", 1969.

INTRO:Am7 C G D


Am
Helplessly hoping,
    C                   G
Her harlequin hovers nearby.
G          D    Am            
Awaiting a word, gasping at glimpses
   C                      G
of gentle true spirit, he runs,
G                D
wishing he could fly,
       Am7               C       G   D
only to trip at the sound of good-bye.


Am
Wordlessly watching,
   C                         G
he waits by the window and wonders,
                   D
at the empty place inside.
Am                     C
Heartlessly helping himself to her
               G
bad dreams, he worries..
                   D       Am7 C    G
Did he hear a good-bye, or even hel..lo?

CHORUS:

Am/G
They are one person, they are two alone.
                                     Dm/F C
They are three together, they are for each other.



Am                            C
Stand by the stairway, you'll see something
                G                      D
certain to tell you, confusion has its cost.
Am                     C                      G
Love isn't lying..it's loose in a lady who lingers
             D       Am7            C    G
saying.. she is lost and choking on hel..lo.


CHORUS:
Am/G
They are one person, they are two alone.
                                     Dm/F C    G
They are three together, they are for each other.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam Part II
From: GUEST,Scott
Date: 17 Apr 22 - 04:07 PM

Here’s is a VIMEO video to honor Vietnam veterans. I put it together over the last few years - with a few songs definitely included because of things I researched and learned on this forum. I hope the video speaks for itself as a thank you to to our Vietnam veterans as well as a thank you to those who served and participated in this forum over the years that I stumbled upon way too late…

https://vimeo.com/623760179

It contains pictures, 8mm video and 18 songs that do ALL the heavy lifting here in telling their remarkable story. Some songs extremely well known and quite a few I learned about here. There’s quite a bit of music about this remarkable time of social and political upheaval in our country that I’d love to use - but I frankly ran out of content and am seeking more pictures from families and the veterans of H Troop I continue to meet. Much love to my father in law and all the members of his unit - H Troop - 17th Cav. that is the center of this piece. Welcome home.

Thank you to all here who have relatives or friends who served our country and maybe even continue to serve. It’s emotional stuff I cannot imagine and as a result, I have left it to the artists and their music I chose to help tell about it.

- Scott

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 05:20 AM

Kieran Wade has a song called "Trail of Tears from Vietnam" on his album "The Gotchy".
You can check it out at www.kieranwade.bandcamp.com

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: Stringsinger
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 07:03 PM

This iconic song sums it up pretty well. As you know it was banned from the Smothers Brothers TV show. It's about the Vietnam War as an allegory. The big fool was undoubtably LBJ. The reference to "Nervous Nellie" was used in those times as pejorative to those who opposed war by I think Spiro Agnew, (I could be wrong about this). Pete, himself, served in the army in Special Services as a performer in WWII. He captures the futility that has come to identify the US in any of the wars that it waged. There's a subtle reference to the enlisted man as coming from a lower economic status then that of his so-called superiors.

"The general got the Croix de Guerre
The sonava bitch was never there...hinky dinky par le vous"

I personally never criticized anyone who served because every man has a right to follow his conscience in a democracy whether I agree with him or not.

Many enlisted came from ghettos, underserved communities and found comradeship and escape from miserable living conditions. As we see today, things will get worse economically
and more unsuspecting men will become pawns in other wars except that a war with Russia may be the last war mankind ever faces.

"I'd sing out danger, I'd sing out a warning"

Waist Deep In the Big Muddy. (Vietnam War, the big muddy)
It was back in nineteen forty-two
I was a member of a good platoon
We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna
One night by the light of the moon
The captain told us to ford a river
That's how it all begun
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy
But the big fool said to push on


The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push onut


The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging
We'll soon be on dry ground."
And the big fool said to push on


The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on

All at once, the moon clouded over
We heard a gurgling cry
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone

We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone

We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on
Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: GUEST,mustermark
Date: 01 May 22 - 06:25 PM

Had to add one of my favorites from the time. Dave Van Ronk's "Romping Through The Swamp." URL follows. I first heard this about three years after my Dad returned from his one year tour for the Air Force building the radar station on Monkey Mountain, several miles north of Danang. It was a great favorite of snipers and got him his second Air Force Commendation Medal award (at least the bullet missed him by a few inches, have slides of him pointing at the hole and Westmoreland dropping by.) They also had a great view of the real "China Beach" as they coined it where they used to occasionally swim, when they were able to get a Huey for shark patrol.
He also did a year over N Korea as bombardier in a B-29 and was an original member of the 36th Artillery Regiment, the third most decorated regiment in all of WW II. He was a loader in the Mutzig Castle direct fire incident. I only learned about the Korea and World War II part starting 10 years after he passed. He was one of those heroes who never spoke about it and perhaps, unfortunately, never realized it.
Bless all of those unsung heroes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8jZM5Lpnxg

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: Lighter
Date: 01 May 22 - 07:20 PM

"The Big Muddy" wasn't banned from the Smothers Brothers Show.

Quite the opposite. The Smothers Brothers were cancelled (in the old-fashioned sense) soon after they allowed Pete Seeger to sing the song on the air.

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 02 May 22 - 02:51 PM

English singer Allan Taylor; I wrote "The Morning lies Heavy" when my brother in law (I married into an American family) was due to be drafted. This was during the Vietnam war, although, as the Vietnam war is not mentioned in the song, whichever war it is is immaterial - the point is that any young man may experience such feelings before joining his unit, in any war situation.

Morning Lies Heavy

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: voyager
Date: 02 May 22 - 07:21 PM

Stringsinger (Frank) got it right.

Sidebar here -

In 1969 I organized a Moratorium walkout of our Santa Monica HS class
in opposition to the Vietnam War (tragedy). We assembled at McArthur Park (cake is melting in the rain) in Los Angeles and listened to Country Joe McDonald (and the Fish) performing anti-war songs. Paramount here is 'Fixing to Die Rag' (1-2-3-4 what are we fighting for).... fast forward from 1969 to mid'90s and my son is doing a paper for 'Black History Month'. I point him to Kid Ory (Louis Armstrong Hot Five combo) and I buy a used Kid Ory record featuring Muskrat Ramble (among others). This turns out to be the tune that Country Joe lifted for his anti-Vietnam anthem. CJ was later sued in court for copyright infringement but won his case. I got a note from Country Joe explaining the ins and outs of this controversy. Anti-war songs are where you find them.

My next antiwar tune might be Vlad Ras-Putin - go f* yourself.

voyager

Subject: RE: Songs About Vietnam War Part II
From: GUEST,Gigi Erba
Date: 05 Dec 24 - 03:33 AM

This is my lyrics transcription to the song " A Vietnam Veteran Still Alive " as sung by Country Joe Mc Donald - Recorded Live: 5/28/1982 - Moscone Center - San Francisco, CA
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/EIOlE-_GvI4?si=LPduz9-OhrJVVi_C

May be some mistakes.
Any correction and suggestion will be welcome.Thanks a lot.


****

A VIETNAM VETERAN STILL ALIVE

Me and my daddy when I was just a boy,
spent so many hours talking about the great World War .
I just couldn't wait until I was full grown (?) …. and wear a uniform..

I can still remember the day I went away , how the home crowds cheered and the flags and banners waved .
When I got up climbed aboard the plane,
I didn't know that things never be the same -

Well , I come home from the war to a war at home ,
And I can't help but wonder what I’ve done wrong .
Seemed like I went off to fight the enemy, now I’m back home and the enemy is me. .
I said I'm back home, and the enemy is me.

It didn't take long before I began to tell the real thing can be a living hell.
So I saw so many lose their bodies and their minds in the jungles and blood of Vietnam .

I kept on fighting and the Lord spared my life .
I lost part of my body but I never lost my mind .
But the home folks seemed to sicken at the sight
of A Vietnam Veteran Still Alive.

I come home from a war to a war at home
and I can't help but wonder what I’ve done wrong.
I went off to fight the enemy
I’m back home and the enemy is me
Said back home and the enemy is me

Please Mr President don't you think it's time to give a little thanks to the boys from Vietnam ,
just a little something that heals all the pain ,
welcome us back home again .

So listen old son ,if you'd like to go and fight,
just make sure you know what it ‘s wrong and right.
Fashion of today could be tomorrow's shame
and the folks at home just have you to blame.

I come home from a war to a war at home
and I can't help but wonder what it was I’ve done wrong.
I went off to fight the enemy,
I’m back home and the enemy is me.
I said I’m back home and the enemy is me.