The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9359   Message #3518441
Posted By: Bettynh
23-May-13 - 12:09 PM
Thread Name: Songs about Vietnam War
Subject: RE: Songs about Vietnam War
OK. so I have a book, The Vietnam Songnook, edited in 1969 by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber. Some of the songs are obviously dated, and many are certainly obscure - there are 7 songs from North Vietnam. I can transcribe a few, scan a few. If you're interested PM me fairly soon because I intend to sell it at Old Songs Festival this year.

I did happen on this one by Pete Seeger:

King Henry

Words by Pete Seeger, Music Traditional (It has chords marked as well, I don't recognize the tune. I can scan it for you).

King Henry marched forth, a sword in his hand
Two thousand horsemen all at his command:
In a fortnight the rivers ran red through the land,
The year, fifteen hundred and twenty.

The year it is now much later it seems,
It's easier far, in the land of our dreams,
Just keep your mouth shut and dont hear the screams
Ten thousand miles over the ocean.

Simon was drafted in 'sixty three,
In 'sixty four, sent over the sea.
Last month this lettter ne sent to me:
He said, "You won't like what I'm saying."

He said, "We've no friends here, not hardly a one.
We've got a few generals who just want our guns.
But it'll take more than them if we're ever to win;
Why, we'll have to flatten the country."

"It's my own troops I have to watch out for," he said.
"I'll sleep with a pistol right under my head;"
He wrote this last month, last week he was dead,
And Simon came home in a casket.

I mind my own business, I watch my TV,
Complain about taxes, but pay anyway,
In a civilized manner my forefathers betray
Who long ago struggled for freedom.

But each day a new headline screams at my bluff,
On TV some general says we must be tough.
In my dreams I stare at this family I love
Alll gutted and spattered with napalm.

(Repeat first and second verses)

Note with the song: Parts of this song are directly from a Kansas serviceman's letter to his wife, written shortly before he was killed in Vietnam in 1965. The quote in the fifth verse is from the letter of an 'Advisor' officer, written a week before his death.