BS: broken token in Vietnam

Subject: broken token in Vietnam
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 04:00 PM

Has anyone heard a song about this? A fragment was posted on a veterans' list..he tears a piaster note in two and gives her half and she was angry at him for wasting the money...I will see if I can get the rest of the words..I wonder if it is based on a true story or if the writer was adding to the broken token genre...

mg

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 09:35 PM

Never heard it. Easily could be true, though -- romantics that we are.

A

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 12:09 AM

here are the lyrics..or maybe it isn't a song..maybe it is in the liner notes or something..

"Short" by bruce Weigl from "songs of Napalm

There's a bar girl on Trung Hung Do who has half a ten-piaster note I tore in my drunken relief to be leaving the country. She has half and i have half, if I can find it. If I lost it,it wasn't on purpose, it's all I have to remember her. she has a wet sheet, a PX fan, PX radio, and half a ten-pisater note, as if she cared to remember me. She thought it was stupid to tear money and when I handed it to her she turned to another soldier, new in country, who needed a girl.I hope I burn in hell.

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 12:55 AM

Bruce Weigl, "Song of Napalm".

Bruce Weigl, "Short".

Seem to be without music.

~Masato

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 03:23 AM

thanks..are these broken token songs universal? Is this something that people often did? Is it like an instinct perhaps?

mg

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: The Walrus
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 06:28 AM

I don't know about "universal", but there seems to be a tradition, the prime example is one of the versions of "Plains of Waterloo"
"And here is the ring, that between us was broken
In the depths of all danger, love, to remind me of you...

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: artbrooks
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 09:35 AM

If I remember correctly, 10 P was somewhat less than a nickel.

Subject: RE: BS: broken token in Vietnam
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 06:04 PM

mg -- in times past, men went to sea or to war, often not returning for years. The broken tokens were used so that the lovers would recognize each other after being apart for a long time.

Cheers,
Michael