Vietnam era protest songs

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Rog Peek
Date: 30 May 07 - 01:23 PM

Phil Ochs was uncompromising in his opposition to war, and in particular the Vietnam War and he wrote many songs which reinforced this opposition. One of my favourites is "White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land".

    E             C#m          A             E
The pilots playing poker in the cockpit of the plane
                C#m             A               F#m
The casualties are rising like the dropping of the rain
       E             C#m         A             B
And a mountain of machinery will fall before a man
               E    G#m A             B      E
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

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

C#m      
Red blow the bugles of the dawn
    B         
The morning has arrived you must be gone
       A                      B
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls
    E                            D   
Like old whores following tired armies

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 colours of a civil war are louder than command
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

Blow them from the forest and burn them from your sight
Tie their hands behind their back 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

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

The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage
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

And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls
like old whores following tired armies.

That's the version which can be found on "Tape from California"
(1968)and later included in "The War is Over - The Best of Phil Ochs" (1988).

I have a recording of Phil on wbai nyc 1965, singing an earlier version with no chorus:

The swamps are turning red along the fevered jungle days
Their casualties are counted in so many different ways
For the killing of a soldier is the murder of a man
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

It's written in the ashes of the village towns we burn
It's written in the empty chairs of fathers unreturned
And the hatred in the children's eyes is clear to understand
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

Flush them from the forest 'til you're sure they all are gone
Tie their hands behind their backs and question them 'til dawn
But when the firing squad is ready they'll be spitting where they stand
At the white boots marching in a yellow land

Helicopters hound the skies and circle in the night
And lead the boys to victory in a thousand little fights
But every battle won is just another grain of sand
When you're white boots marching in a yellow land

Oh the brave bombs of the wealthy will shatter as they shine
But the bloodiest of course can only buy a little time
And history is waiting for the very best of plans
By the white boots marching in a yellow land

Centuries of colonies of slavery and worse
Now lead us to a future of their past all in reverse
Yes we're fighting in a war we lost before that war began
For we're white boots marching in a yellow land.

Lyrics to most if not all Phils songs can be found here:
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics.html

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: bobad
Date: 30 May 07 - 11:48 AM

DRAFT DODGER RAG
(Phil Ochs)

I'm just a typical American boy from a typical American town
I believe in God and Senator Todd and keeping old 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, my feet are flat, and my asthma's
getting worse
O think of 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
working in a defense plant

I've got a dislocated disc and a racked up back
I'm allergic to flowers and bugs
And when bombshells hit, I get epileptic fits
And I'm addicted to a thousand drugs
I got the weakness woes, I can't touch my toes
I can hardly touch my knees
And if the enemy came close to me
I'd probably start to sneeze

I hate Chou En Lai, and I hope he dies,
but one thing you gotta see
That someone's gotta go over there
but that someone isn't me
So I wish you well, Sarge, give 'em Hell
Yeah kill me a thousand or more
And if you ever get a war without blood and gore
Well I'll be the first to go

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 30 May 07 - 11:31 AM

"I'm only 16, I got a ruptured spleen and I always carry a purse..."
I can't recall whether Arlo Guthrie did that one, but it sounds about right. Gordon Lightfoot did several anti-war songs earlier in his career, though the messages were sometimes more oblique than direct. Among them are "Sit Down, Young Stranger," "Don Quixote," "Leaves of Grass" and "The Patriot's Dream." The way a lot of folks dealt with that whole era might have been summed up in Brewer & Shipley's song, "One Toke Over The Line."

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 May 07 - 02:31 AM

Big Mick, et al:

The "heat" definitely meant the cops, but this particular song ("For What It's Worth") couldn't possible have referred to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It's at least a year older than that; I'm quite sure that Buffalo Springfield (the group with whom Steven Stills recorded his composition) had broken up by late 1968.

In fact, Stills' next group (CS&N, predecessor to CSN&Y) was probably in the process of forming up, writing songs and arrangements, etc., by the time of the convention, which was in late August or early September of '68, and they may even have begun working in the studio. Their first album was released during the 1968-69 school year, but the group didn't perform in public until the summer of 1969, at Woodstock. ("We've never sung in public before, man!" ~ remember that?)

I remember reading somewhere ~ probably the liner notes for the album on which "FWIW" first appeared ~ that Stills wrote the song immediately after some relatively minor (and since-forgotten) peace demonstration on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Anyway, what a great song ~ right? It's very evocative of its era, of course, but I think it stands on its own merits as well.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Peace
Date: 28 May 07 - 10:15 AM

Under the loving guidance of Mayor Daly.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Big Mick
Date: 28 May 07 - 08:06 AM

It is, indeed, "heat", Joe. As Jeri points out, this is a reference to the police, likely the Chicago Police.

Mick

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Jeri
Date: 28 May 07 - 07:56 AM

Joe, I thought you were there, man! The 'heat' = the police.

I saw CS&N in the 70's, and Stills did this incredible camp-meeting preacher style rap in the middle of the song, a similar version of which was recorded on one of his later albums with his later band.

Subject: Lyr Add: FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH (Buffalo Springfield)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 May 07 - 01:49 AM

That's a good one, Agustin. I found the lyrics at Lyrics World, my favorite source for pop lyrics.
-Joe-

For What It's Worth
Words and music by Stephen Stills, 1967
As recorded by Buffalo Springfield as a single and later on the re-release of "Buffalo Springfield" (1967)

There's somethin' happenin' here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there
A-tellin' me I got to beware.
I think it's time we stop; children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's goin' down.

There's battle lines bein' drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speakin' their minds,
A-gettin' so much resistance from behind.
It's time we stop; hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's goin' down.

What a field-day for the heat!
A thousand people in the street
Singin' songs and a-carryin' signs
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side."
It's time we stop; hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's goin' down.

Paranoia strikes deep.
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you're always afraid.
You step out o' line, the man come and take you away.
We better stop; hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.
We better stop; hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.
We better stop; now, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.
We better stop; children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.


(Field day for the HEAT??? I thought it was 'East')
I looked in a dozen fakebooks and didn't find this song.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,agustin
Date: 27 May 07 - 07:32 PM

i heard a song the other day on a documentary on vietnam..it was kinda old and it had some vietnam era songs.. i dont really recall the lyrics of the song..the only thing i know it said was "stop! now blah blah blah"..or "stop blah blah".. man i hope i could remember..

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 09:14 AM

The question was Vietnam ERA protests Mojo , though I think Little Boxes is a little early !! Its still a protest song !!

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: nutty
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 03:37 AM

Harvey Andrews failed to mention "Death Cone Easy" which I think is an amazing song and one of his best.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 01:50 AM

I recently heard (on the radio) a great one by Bill Withers, famous for "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me," "Just the Two of Us," etc. I'm almost positive it dates back the the Vietnam era (as do Bill's hits) but it's something I don't remember ever having heard before.

It was a live recording (audible audience reaction) with a long spoken introduction, about visiting a veterans hospital, meeting with wounded and disabled returnees from Nam. He stops speaking and begins singing after starting to tell us about one amputee, who asks Bill to write a letter to his mother. The title (and first sung lyric):

"I Can't Write Left Handed." Very powerful stuff.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: MojoBanjo
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 12:55 PM

Little Boxes??????????

That song was expressly about the rise of the suburb in the American society. It's about conformity that was exemplified by cookie cutter style houses that couldn't be told apart and, by extension, people taught and conditioned to be all the same.

Mojo Banjo

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 12:39 PM

There was also another one - amazingly enough because it just about ruined his substantial career in the USA - therefore the world .The U.S Music Establishment cold-shouldered Mr. Roy Orbison (of all people)for his rendition :-
Chorus:-
No there won't be many coming home
No there won't be many coming home
No there won't be many – maybe 5 out of 20 ,
No there won't be many coming home

All that defeatist stuff did NOT go down well.
Again sorry no name of songwriter

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Juan P-B
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 12:02 PM

There're two Tom Paxton Songs that stick in my mind

"Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues" - Brilliant talking blues about a rookie on his first patrol in 'nam and discovering that 'the weed' grows in abundance

And...

The Superb "Jimmy Newman" - Guy waiting to be medi-vacced out of the M.A.S.H and telling the guy in the next bed to wake up coz they're going home. - Still makes me weep!

Juan P-B

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: NH Dave
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 11:17 AM

As I recall, The Green Fields of France was written about that time, and Knee Deep in the Big Muddy was also sung about the Viet Nam mess.

Dave

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 08:03 AM

i've remembered the title of the David Peel & lower east side
pot addled p*ss-take of "Please Mr Custer"

"Please Mr Draft Board"

http://shop.fye.com/product.aspx?sku=63501843&loc=50244

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 07:45 AM

Lyndon Johnston told the Nation, have no fear of escalation
- I am trying everyone to please
And though it's just another war, we're send ing 20,000 more
-To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese.
Sounds painfully like Iraq !!!

There's an Aussie one Martin Whyndam-Read used to sing in the 60's "William White " about a school teacher who wouldn't be conscripted - it's a beaut.

Apologies - I can't attribute the songwriters names

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 06:01 AM

One of Pat Sky's best....We have run several threads besides this one over the years and this one has come up several times.

JIMMY CLAY.......Patrick Sky


So as you walk down the street who will talk to you
Six o' clock it's getting late
The moon is rising and the sticky dew
fall's to the ground by the gate

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

Now you're alone Jimmy Clay
As your smoke your cigar and earn your pay
With 15000 soldiers marching by your side
Now you're alone Jimmy Clay

Do you remember New York Town, good old New York Town
The cops, the friends, the drunks and all
The whores who took your money when you couldn't stand
All those roaring nights you can't recall

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

Now you're alone Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and think of yesterday
But yesterday don't matter when it's going away
Now you're alone Jimmy Clay

Now as you lie there in the mud who will talk to you
Nobody, Jimmy Clay
For if you've gone mankind soon follows after you
Doesn't it Jimmy Clay

And your face will grown mouldy when they've kissed your cheek
And say please die for us, Jimmy Clay
Ans so you died a soldier and a hero's death
Congratulations Jimmy Clay

Now you're alone Jimmy Clay
As you smoke your cigar and earn your pay
Somewhere in the distance hear a fiddle play
But not one note will change Jimmy Clay

**********************************************************

Spaw

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 04:43 AM

Mark Spoelstra's "White Winged Dove" :
was that the one about buying a gun for your son, Rapaire???

There's also "Agent Orange" - which I do. I'm not sure when Muriel Hogan wrote it (Kate Wolf sang it), but I did start a thread about it some time back ...

I seem to recall that there have also been CDs produced of Music of the Vietnam War era ...

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: number 6
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 11:59 PM

Vietnam Blues by the late great J.B. Lenoir

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 10:36 PM

God, when you start the mind dump....

What did you learn in school today?

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 10:35 PM

Oh, yeah:

Buy a gun for your son
We didn't know at all

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 10:34 PM

My son John (Paxton)
Sergeant, I'm a Draftee (Paxton)
Talking Vietnam Blues (Ochs)


The first one starts

My son John was a good boy and good to me
When we had hard times well he stood by me....

The second

Sergeant, I'm a draftee and I've just arrived in camp
I've come to wear the uniform and join the martial tramp
And I want to do my duty, but one thing I do implore
You must give me lessons Sergeant, for I've never killed before.

The third

Sailing over to Vietnam
Southeast Asian Birmingham....

Yeah, I still sing "Lydon Johnson told the nation" and "Draft Dodger rag." But no body listens.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Auggie (cookieless)
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 09:29 PM

Next to the "Fixin' to Die Rag", the best Anti-Nam song has to be



The Ballad Of Penny Evans (Steve Goodman)

"Oh my name is Penny Evans and I just turned twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun.

And I remember I was seventeen on the day I met young Bill
At his grandma's grand piano, we'd play good old 'Heart and Soul'
Well, I only knew the left hand part and he the right so well
He's the only boy I ever slept with, and the only one I will.

It's first we had a baby girl and we had two good years
It was next the 1A notice came and we parted without tears
And it was nine months from our last good night our second babe appears
And it's ten months and a telegram confirming all our fears.

And now every month I get a check from some Army bureaucrat
And it's every month I tear it up and I mail the damn thing back.
Do you think that makes it all right, do you think I'd fall for that ?
You can keep your bloody money, sure won't bring my Billy back.

Well, I never cared for politics, speeches I don't understand,
And likewise never took no charity from any living man
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone in that unhappy land
And fifty thousand 'Heart and Soul's' being played with just one hand.

And my name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun."



I don't know, now even daughters are getting served up as fodder in this current one. Does anybody who was of draft age back then remember how our generation was going to change things when we got in control of the world, and keep shit like this from ever happening again? Sometimes I don't know whether to be angry, humbled, ashamed, or just embarrassed at the way we failed in keeping our word when it comes to old promises like those.

Sorry bout the thread drift, but yesterday here in our little town of 7000 souls, they buried a 24 year old Marine corporal who fell in Iraq, same age as my only son, and it just leaves you feeling....empty.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: jaze
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 08:18 PM

"It Could Have Been Me" by Holly Near. About Kent State.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 07:56 PM

"Paint It Black' was supposed to have grown out of it.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 06:54 AM

Another 4 great songs:

"The Fields Of Vietnam" – written by Ewan McColl, sung by Mick
Moloney on his recording "We Have Met Together".
"The Ballad Of Penny Evans" – Steve Goodman.
"The Ballad Of Tim LeBlanc" – Vin Garbutt.
"Hey, Sandy!" – Harvey Andrews.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 06:32 AM

Vietnam war song links n lyrics

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 06:25 AM

The late Sidney Carter's Crow on the Cradle and a few by tom Paxton - Talking Vietnam Pot Luck blues and Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation are two that spring to mind .

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 01:25 AM

Thanks, Brucie, I remembered the chorus of that song but had forgotten most of the verses. Prine's writing is like a Diane Arbus photograph: vivid, searing, and true.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Peace
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 11:13 PM

Sam Stone
by John Prine


Sam Stone came home,
To the wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knees.
But the morhpine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back.

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And soon he took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold roared through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon,
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair.
Well, he played his last request,
While the room smelled just like death,
With an overdose hovering in the air.
But life had lost it's fun,
There was nothing to be done,
But trade his house that he bought on the GI bill,
For a flag-draped casket on a local hero's hill.

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 11:09 PM

Not too sure what the name of the song is but John Prine wrote it about a vet returning from Nam:

There's a hole in daddy's arm
Where all the money goes
Jesus died fore nuthin'
I suppose

Bobert

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,punfolkrocker
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 10:44 PM

[if memory can be trusted]

David Peel & the Lower East Side..

a tragic stoner hippy parody of

"Please Mr Custer"

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 09:47 PM

"I Was Only 19" by Redgum

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: pdq
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 07:59 PM

There's always The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's "Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes".

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 07:30 PM

dont know if it counts here..
But new CD from "Old Crow Medicine Show"
includes a song
"Big time in the jungle"
which on 1st listening I thought must be a cover
of an old 60's protest song..

But it must be a new song in that genre
written by this young[ish] band

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Peace
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:18 PM

Silent Night/Six O'clock News--Simon and Garfunkel
Blowin' in the Wind--Dylan
Draft Dodger Rag--Ochs
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?--Seeger

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:09 PM

Universal Soldier
Eve of Destruction
With God on our Side (Martin Gibson probably believes the sentiment)

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 06:04 PM

Try Some Donovan songs, Ballad of a crystal man,The war drags on. There were some others. He also did one by Buffy St Marie-can't remember title.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: harvey andrews
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 05:48 PM

Try Phil Ochs. Anyone sing "Cops of the world" anymore?Pure prophesy.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: Peace
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 03:44 PM

The Animals

Album: The Best of Eric Burton& The Animals
The original Animals slowly disbanded but Burdon reappeared in California
with his new group at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival,
The band went on to define the era musically with many songs now considered hippie classics such as the fiercely antiwar song 'Sky Pilot'.        

Lyrics:
He blesses the boys as they stand in life
The smell of gun grease and their bayonets they shine
He's here to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man.
Sky pilot, sky pilot, how high can you fly
You'll never never never reach the sky.
He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it's all right
He knows of their fears in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mother and fathers back home they will cry.
Sky pilot, sky pilot, how high can you fly
You'll never never never reach the sky.
He humbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given they move down the line
But hell stay behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop to bleeding or is the hate.
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good with god you're never alone
He feels so tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
In the words that he's said.
Sky pilot, sky pilot, how high can you fly
You'll never never never reach the sky.
You're soldiers of god you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May god give you strength do your job really well
If it all was worth in only time it will tell.
In the morning they returned with tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A young soldier so it looks at the sky bright
Remember the words thou shalt not kill.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 04 - 03:38 PM

Sky Pilot. Don't remember who did it but remember my brother in law listening to it when he got back from vietnam.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: jeepman (inactive)
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 12:59 PM

You guys are good!! Jman

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:24 AM

"Little Boxes" that you remember is probably the anti-war parody rather than Malvina's original version. You can probably find it with a thread search of the DT. I always liked "Step by Step" (anon. but passed on by Pete Seeger) for warming up a crowd before a long march.

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: late 'n short 2
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:23 AM

Sorry. Try this

Subject: Lyr Add: I-FEEL-LIKE-I'M-FIXIN'-TO-DIE RAG^^
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:23 AM

Could that 2nd one be Country Joe & the Fish? If memory serves, It went along these lines:

Come on all of you big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again
Got himself in a terrible jam, way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your book and pick up a gun, Gonna have a whole lot of fun

(CH) And its 1,2,3 what are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam
And its 5,6,7 open up the pearly gates
Ain't no time to wonder why, WHoopee were all gonna die

Come on Generals lets move fast, Your big chance is here at last
Now go out and get those reds for the only good commie is the one thats dead
(line here I can't remember)...and blow em all to kingdom come(?)

Come on Fathers don't be slow, man this is war-agogo!
Come on mothers don't hesitate, send your boy off before it's too late
Be the first one on your blocks to have your son come home in a box!

Thats all I can remember

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: late 'n short 2
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:16 AM

Country Joe MacDonald has a similar "boy in a box" line in "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag". Check it here. Check it here

Subject: RE: Vietnam era protest songs
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 10:53 AM

The 1st song is Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes." It is in digitrad. I cannot recall the 2nd song.

Subject: Vietnam era protest songs
From: jeepman (inactive)
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 10:27 AM

A lot of the Vietnam protest songs were very good and well worth remembering. I need help with a couple.

All I remember is, they were performed at Woodstock, and on the radio. 1) "Houses made of tiky tac", was part of one song.

"Send your son to Vietnam and get him back in a box",

This is probably not accurate but may stir some memories. Jeepman