(1973)
Single: Wake Up America! / How Do You Tell A Small Boy

The second song "How Do You Tell a Small Boy", narrated from the perspective of a P.O.W. (Prisoner of War), looked at the impact of a missing father on a child.

The P.O.W. wondered how to explain to his son that he "had to go to war", and that he spent most of his "time on a prison floor". The P.O.W. missed many of his son's life events: receiving his first bike, going to school, meeting his friend, playing in the snow. The father concluded that while he could not make up the time, and that his son paid the cost, he intended to stay home.

Vietnam War Songs Project

(1973)
Single: Wake Up America! / How Do You Tell A Small Boy

A double-sided Vietnam single, written and sung by Lance Lindsay. Bruce Miller arranged both sides. Released by Voices in Vital America (VIVA) - a not-for-profit student organisation formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by Carol Oates, under the name Victory in Vietnam Association, this group sought to counter campus radicalism while promoting concern for US soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war.

They famously distributed metal bracelets, with details of those M.I.A. or P.O.W., selling over 5 million. The group disbanded in 1976. Many of its records are held at the Vietnam Center and Archive, at Texas Tech.

The back of the picture sleeve said that

"over 1800 men are prisoners of war or missing in action. A picture of Lt. Ron Dodge (front cover) being escorted by North Vietnamese soldiers appeared in 'Paris March' magazine... (continuer)

The country song "The Blind Soldier From Vietnam" (Arzee # RZ-106-X) took an anti-war and plight of the soldier interpretation.

Curly Herman (1918-1968), from West Virginia, a fiddler in the 1960s, sometimes headed a group called the West Virginia Boys. He died shortly after the recording and release of this single, in 1968.

Narrated from the perspective of a soldier, who had returned home "from Vietnam", blinded by the war. His brother had also died in a war, possibly Vietnam or Korea. Likewise his father, presumably a reference to the Second World War. It thus sought to show a family continuity in fighting wars for the US. The narrator then explained that the young boy helped him cross the street. The boy told him that his friend's father had died in the Vietnam War. The soldier then declared: "dear god...stop the fighting in Vietnam and send the boys home safely". Released in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Rex Zario's record label Arzee (he produced the single). Composed by Curly Herdman.

Vietnam War Song Project

(1971)
dal capolavoro assoluto di Marvin Gaye, What's Going On.



Una canzone di profonda religiosità e un appello alla pace e all'amore per il prossimo, ma che parla anche del rapporto conflittuale di Marvin con suo padre, pastore del movimento pentecostale. Come è noto, nel 1984 Marvin Gay Sr. uccise il figlio mentre quest'ultimo tentava di difendere la madre durante una lite per futili motivi.

Notevole l'utilizzo di questa canzone nell'ultimo film di Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods, cantata da uno dei personaggi principali durante una delle scene più drammatiche.

(1969)

The song "Tricia, Tell Your Daddy" (Steed Records # 715), performed on this single by Andy Kim in 1969, targeted President Nixon's daughter Tricia. The narrator pleaded with her to spread "love and peace", and stop the "people dying needlessly" because Nixon "is everybody's daddy now". Composed by Jeff Barry & Marty Joe Kupersmith (aka Marty Sanders) of the band Jay and The Americans, who released their own version of the song in 1970: Tricia Tell Your Daddy, arranged by Donald Fagen & Walter Becker, otherwise known as Steely Dan.

Vietnam War Songs Project

1974
Album: The Force Of Life

Words and Music by Mike Stout
Additional Words by Red Star Singers - 1974

We heard "Vietnam Will Win!" on a tape from New York made by Mike Stout.

We liked it but we wanted to rework parts of it. Gary rewrote some of the words and added a verse and Michael made some changes in the music. All this was done without Mike Stout ever hearing it. When we finally contacted him to let him know we changed the song and wanted to use it be was (fortunately) very pleased.

1974
Album: The Force Of Life
Testo da YouTube

In the '60's a lot of spirituals and rock 'n' roll songs were overhauled to become freedom songs for civil rights demonstrators. “Pig Nixon” comes from “Oh Wallace,” (“you're never gonna jail us all”) which people sang in Alabama. We use “Pig Nixon” as an all-purpose song, writing verses for the occasion, each verse about a current issue.

[1970]
Lyrics & music by Skeeter Davis
Album: It's Hard To Be A Woman

In 1970 Skeeter Davis aimed “When You Gonna Bring Our Soldiers Home” directly at president Nixon. Voicing a woman’s perspective, Skeeter declared, “Every mother has to worry about the son she loves, And every sweetheart has to worry too". Although Nixon did not think she should “protest” or “question” his policies, “I think I’ve got a right 'cause I just got word tonight, The Man I love was killed there yesterday, When you gonna bring our soldiers home?”. The following year, Arlene Harden’s “Congratulations, You Sure Made a Man Out of Him” was equally bitter and provided an even more frontal challenge to the South’s patriotic militarism. Unlike Lynn’s and Davis’ songs, in which the US soldiers had died, the character in this song had returned home profoundly impaired: “I watch him just sit by the window and silently... (continuer)

In a 1970 spoken-word poem off his debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, musician Gil Scott-Heron takes aim at the (predominantly white) student movement and its claim to represent “radical” change. He pours cold water on the idea that there could be a meaningful alliance between the white New Left and radical organizations of color, because middle-class and upper-class whites are simply incapable of understanding the struggles of the poor and disadvantaged.

Kanye West sampled this song in “Who Will Survive In America”, ending the album with the same message as GSH did

Genius

1968

The song "There in Viet Nam" (Bubbie Records # 1003) - a country music track that took an anti-war position. It placed a strong emphasis on the contrast between the voting age (21) and the draft age (18).

The narrator also expressed moral and religious opposition to the war, quoting the bible: "thou shall not kill". Yet, she also defended the previous generation's conflict as a just war for freedom: "his daddy fought in World War Two so that we can live in peace".

Released in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Written by B. Willow. Produced by Frank Dell.

Vietnam War Songs Project

The country anti-war track "Viet Nam" (Green Mountain # GM-101), by the obscure artists Pat Bohlman and Edwin Maderia, expressed the view that the war was harming the US, but it also noted the ongoing peace negotiations in Paris, which the song described as "doing well". The negotiations started in Paris in 1968, and were mainly conducted by Henry Kissinger (National Security Adviser to President Richard Nixon, 1969-1974) and his North Vietnamese counterpart Lê Ðức Thọ.

Vietnam War Songs Project

1970
Single The War Is Over / You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Anti Vietnam war song "The War Is Over" (RCA Victor # 74-0309) referenced Richard Nixon, criticizing him for ignoring the protesters and prolonging the war. It also noted a protester being killed, which in the case of Michael James Brody Jr. won't make any difference because he will be reborn.

1964

Nathan McKinney recorded the doo-wop track "Weep No More", composed by the blues man Len Johnson. The song, released on the Los Angeles based label Rayco Records (R-526), founded by Floyd Ray, contained themes of the Vietnam War. It is narrated from the soldier's perspective, who tells us that "Uncle Sam is calling for me", and that he is resigned to leaving those he loves: "So I guess I'll have to go".

Vietnam War Songs

(1969)
Musica un po' copiata da You Ain't Go Nowhere (da The Basement Tapes di Bob Dylan & The Band interpretata anche da The Byrds)



Double-sided Vietnam War single by Chicano soul group Six Pak, released on the Californian label Gordo (# 704), founded by Eddie Davis (a sub-label of his Rampart Records). Both tracks had a Latin Soul feel to it - of course, the label focused on Mexican Americans.

This formed part of the West Coast 'Eastside Sound' music scene. According to the president of Rampart Steven Chavez: "almost 50% of the artists from the East Side Sound era served in combat roles in Viet Nam, losing their innocence to a war in the prime of their youth, and returned to a changed American music scene that pretty much turned their back on them with the advent of new genres like hard rock, heavy metal, punk, disco and the like".

Firstly, the group covered the song "Weep... (continuer)

(1971?)

Double-sided anti-Vietnam War single, with the tracks "Why Is It?" and "When I Come Home" (A & G Records # AG 2041) - this label was almost certainly based in New York, with A & G standing for Al Grannum, a radio DJ for WLIB. His program in the late 1960s and early 1970s focused on R&B groups. This record was released under the name "Al Grannum & the Granulated Souls". There is a picture of Grannum in a 1971 article from the The Daily Register, based in Red Bank, New Jersey, in which Grannum was helping out at a community party. Is there a connection to Hugh Grannum, the Detroit based photographer? The record was also released in Jamaica - Why Is It? / When I Come Home (Dynamic Sounds # AG 2041).

So in the first track, "Why Is It?", the narrator, in spoken-word, said that he was "sick and tired" of hearing about children starving and "soldiers dying". He wanted to... (continuer)

1972

1968

In the blues / gospel track "Viet Nam" (Gospel Corner Records # GC-127) Madame Nellie Robinson pleaded for the conclusion of the Vietnam War - "settle this war in Vietnam" - in order to stop people from dying: "lord have mercy, a child is dying". It considered the pain felt by those fighting: "soldiers laying in mud". It also looked at the family and friends of soldiers in the US: "mothers and fathers at home crying". Robinson signed to the label Gospel Corner, based in Los Angeles, California, by Brother Hudson in 1968, a subsidiary of Proverb Records.

Composed by Madame Nellie Robinson. Produced by Bro. Henderson.

Vietnam War Songs Project

(1971)

The 1971 track "See What You Done, Done (Hymn No. 9)" about a Vietnam veteran who became a drug addict, was composed by Atlanta, Georgian soul singer Delia Gartrell and her husband James T. Shaw, otherwise known as The Mighty Hannibal (he also released a Vietnam War song in 1966 with a similar name, but different theme - Hymn No. 5). This Delia Gartrell single, originally released on the obscure Atlanta label Demin-Kalo (# JS-2/JS-3), was soon after picked up by the larger New York label Right-On Records (RR0-109).

Hannibal explained in an interview the inspiration for writing "See What You Done, Done": "Me and my wife were watching the news and Walter Cronkite was talking about how all the soldiers were coming back from Vietnam addicted to opium". Thus, the song provides a representation of veteran drug addiction associated with the Vietnam War:

Vietnam War Song Project

1971
(David Sheffield)

Soul song called "Bring My Buddies Back" (Stone Lady # SL-006), which had a very similar sound and theme to Freda Payne's "Bring The Boys Home" - except in this case the plea came from the perspective of a war veteran, asking the government to end the war and send his friends home.

The very first line actually referenced Payne, saying: "Hey Freda, maybe you were right". The song went on to recall one of his friends dying in Vietnam because of the "lack of doctors". Not much is know of this group. They probably came from the East Coast - their label Stone Lady was based in New Jersey, founded by David L. Sheffield, who composed this and most of the songs on their album. The members of the group were Luis Farinas (tenor vocals), Doug Green (lead vocals), Greg Jackson (tenor vocals), and Tony Matthews (bass vocals).

This song also featured on the album "Bring My Buddies Back" (Stone Lady # 1001), the front cover of which has a painting of marching troops in Vietnam.

Vietnam War Songs Project

1967

From the album "Hey, Hey...LBJ! Songs of the U.S. Antiwar Movement" (Crisis Records # LP-001 / US / LP / 33rpm)

Dean Rusk (1909-1994) segretario di stato dal 1961 al 1969 sotto le presidenze di Kennedy e Johnson e convinto sostenitore della guerra in Vietnam.

(1965)
da Broadside #64

1970

Citazione della canzone popoloare When Johnny Comes Marching Home (vedi Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye)

1973
album: Broadside Number Seven

(1968)

Scritta per la campagna del democratico Eugene McCarthy che alle primarie democratiche per scegliere il nuovo candidato in vista della fine del mandato di Johnson, presentò una piattaforma pacifista criticando aspramente il suo compagno di partito LBJ e denunciando la sua volontà di escalation in Vietnam.

McCarthy non vinse le primarie, gli fu preferito Hubert Humphrey, vice di Johnson che fu comunque sconfitto dal candidato repubblicano Richard Nixon.

A beautiful contemporary folk song, "Long Black Wall" , one of the first songs written and released about the memorial. It looked back at the idealistic early days of the war, wanting to fight communism and become a soldier.
Then he recalled the growth of the protest movement, referencing demonstrations outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 1968.
It then looked at the college days
with a reference to President Richard Nixon , and hippie culture. The song then turned to the impact of the war on the returning veterans.
( da Vietnam War Song Project )



Il Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("Memoriale dei veterani del Vietnam") è un memoriale di guerra degli Stati Uniti. Si trova a Washington, e onora i membri della forze armate americane che combatterono e persero la vita durante la guerra del Vietnam. In ordine cronologico vengono elencati i nomi delle 58.318 vittime... (continuer)

1972
Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 3

Un blues che parla di guerra del Vietnam, inciso durante la guerra, prevede che questa sia senza fine viste le numerose nazioni che appoggiano il Vietnam. Poi paragona i problemi dei Vietnamiti con quelli degli afroamericani (dice "i miei problemi", il padre era del Congo, la madre per metà Cherokee e per metà afroamericana): Champion Jack Dupree negli anni '60 abbandona gli Stati Uniti per trasferirsi in Europa: gira Svizzera, Danimarca (dove vive a Christiania a Copenhagen), Inghilterra, Svezia e infine in Germania. [DQ82]

Champion Jack Dupree - born William Thomas Dupree (c.1910-1992) in New Orleans, he played blues piano in the boogie-woogie style, mainly based in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in London and worked in Europe through most of the 1960s. He sung about drugs, drink, and jail, as well as writing many political songs about US presidents (such... (continuer)

[1969]
Lyrics and Music by Buzz Clifford
Album: Echo Park

This was a song that's haunted me for a long time - it tells of the Old Man looking back on his life, and what's left for him - all loneliness and retrospection - but what's really haunting was the Vietnam era reference of a letter saying "your son will not be coming home" - I thought, how amazing and sordid would that be, getting the news of the death by mail…

[1974]
Scritta da Bobby Hackney, uno dei tre fratelli afroamericani da cui era composta questa punk band di Detroit
Singolo poi incluso nell'album "... For the Whole World to See", registrato nel 1975 ma pubblicato solo nel 2009
Testo trovato su Genius

Un pezzo incredibile, devastante, che non conoscevo, con una suite strumentale incendiaria...
Si ispiravano ai britannici The Who e ai loro concittadini MC5...
Erano neri, erano punk, e vennero prima di parecchi celebri gruppi punk bianchi...
Ma non ebbero fortuna, nessuno pubblicò il loro primo possibile album...
Le loro registrazioni dimenticate furono riscoperte nel 2008 dai figli di Bobby Hackney e finalmente pubblicate, più di trent'anni dopo...

[1960s]
Scritta da Joe De Filippo, musicista di Baltimora, leader della R.J. Phillips Band
Testo trovato qui

[1968]
Scritta da Joe De Filippo, musicista di Baltimora, leader della R.J. Phillips Band
Testo trovato qui

Daniel e Philip Berrigan erano due fratelli del Minnesota. Di profonda fede cattolica, il primo divenne gesuita, il secondo prete.

Il 17 maggio 1968, i due fratelli Berrigan, insieme ad altri sette religiosi ed attivisti cattolici, entrarono negli uffici della leva militare a Catonsville, Maryland, prelevarono centinaia di lettere di coscrizione destinate a giovani americani obbligati ad andare a combattere in Vietnam e le bruciarono nel parcheggio antistante all'edificio, usando un liquido infiammabile simile al napalm con cui la US Air Force bombardava tutti i giorni i villaggi nordvietnamiti.

L'attivismo radicale contro le guerre e contro le armi nucleari accompagnò i fratelli Berrigan per tutta la vita, gran parte della quale trascorsa in aule di tribunale e in prigioni con la sola imputazione di disobbedienza civile.

Il brano si apre con un'invocazione scritta all'epoca dei fatti da Daniel Berrigan.

(1981)
Lyrics by Grace Slick
Music by Ken Lauber

Scritta dal pianista Ken Lauber e cantata dalla cantante dei Jefferson Airplane/Starship, una ballata sul destino di un ragazzo mandato a combattere in Vietnam.

Dalla colonna sonora di Kent State un film sugli studenti della Kent State uccisi dalla guardia nazionale mentre protestavano contro la guerra.

Trascritta all'ascolto.

Album: Smash The Windows (2009)

(1967)
Parole di Bob Dylan
Musica di Richard Manuel
Originariamente registrata da Dylan con The Band nei famosi Basement Tapes pubblicati solo nel 1975
Registrata nel 1968 dalla Band senza Dylan in apertura dell'album Music from Big Pink cantata da Richard Manuel e da Joan Baez in Any Day Now .

Tears of Rage … is a soldier’s curse upon his commander. It’s the voice of a man who followed his leader into battle, saw his friends slaughtered for a cause he never believed in, only to return to find his superior running for political office, turning his back on the values that were so easily sacrificed. “We carried you in our arms / on Independence Day” is the kind of battle-scar allusion that Robbie Robertson will flesh out on ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” …

“Tears of Rage” doesn’t depend on the same associations, but it pursues the same memories and voices , a disbelief in and... (continuer)

[1968]
Lyrics and music / Testo e musica / Paroles et musique / Sanat ja sävel: Leonard Hunt Chandler
Album / Albumi: Originalmente non pubblicata in album / Originally unrealeased in album
Versione modificata / Modified Version: Freedom is A Constant Struggle - Songs of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement [1994]

Len (Leonard Hunt) Chandler, nato il 27 maggio 1935 a Akron nell'Ohio, ha pubblicato soltanto due album in proprio, e tutti e due nel 1967: To Be a Man e The Lovin' People. Nel 1968 ha collaborato ad un album di Lee Irwin & The Credibility Gap, An Album of Political Pornography. Per il resto, canzoni sparse e unreleased in album, come questa; ciò non gli ha impedito di essere considerato, tra la fine degli anni '60 e gli inizi degli anni '70, tra i più influenti artisti afroamericani, e tra i più coerentemente impegnati. Sostenitore riconosciuto del Black Power, il tema... (continuer)

[1969]
Parole e musica di Gordon Lightfoot
La title track dell'album pubblicato nel 1970 che venne poi subito reintitolato "If You Could Read My Mind", a causa del grande successo di quest'altra canzone.

"Sit Down Young Stranger" è una canzone bellissima ma complessa e per questo ci è finora sfuggita come autentica ed imprescindibile CCG/AWS... Racconta di un dialogo serrato e difficile tra un giovane, che da poco ha fatto ritorno a casa, e i suoi genitori, manifestamente ostili alle scelte del figlio, tanto da considerarlo uno straniero. I genitori sono un padre e una madre come tanti, lui burbero e pratico, lei amorevole e silenziosa, soggetta al marito... Entrambi vorrebbero un futuro regolare e di successo per il proprio figlio, che invece è un idealista che ha per giunto scelto di disertare per non andare a combattere in Vietnam, e si è rifugiato per parecchio tempo all'estero, forse... (continuer)