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

[1968]
Lyrics & Music by Gary Brooker and Keith Reid
Album: Salty Dog [1999 reissue bonus track]

Produced by Denny Cordell and recorded 10/07/68, this is an unreleased performance mixed down from the original four-track tape, that was originally intended to be included on the Shine On Brightly album. Brooker's vocal on this track is merely there to guide the group as they work out the song in the studio, and is obviously not representative of how any finished version of this track would have sounded. It is, however, the only surviving take of McGreggor to feature any kind of vocal performance, and as such the historical importance of the whole outweighs the technical imperfections of any of its parts!
 

(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... (continua)

La Terreur blanche

Chanson française – La Terreur blanche – Marco Valdo M.I. – 2020

Quelques histoires albanaises, tirées de nouvelles d’Ismaïl Kadaré, traduites par Christian GUT et publiées en langue française en 1985 sous le titre La Ville du Sud.(6)


Dialogue Maïeutique

« La Terreur blanche », Lucien l’âne mon ami, voilà qui me rappelle quelque chose. La terreur est un mal qui se répand par toute la Terre : on en a vu des noires, des brunes, des rouges, des bleues, des vertes, des safrans et bien sûr, des blanches. De façon générale, il s’agit de massacrer ceux avec qui on n’est pas d’accord et de préférence, des civils désarmés et sans défense. Au fait, les Vaudois ont connu ça.

Oui, Lucien l’âne mon ami, dit Marco Valdo M.I. ; mais avant d’aller plus avant, je voudrais faire une petite précision : quand il s’agit de se massacrer entre militaires, on appelle ça la guerre. Pour en... (continua)

[2017]
Lyrics by Gary Brooker
Music by Gary Brooker and Josh Phillips
Album: Novum

“Soldier” starts pensive and it’s a solid Procol Harum old fashion melody. Everything is as it was during “Shine on Brightly”, – powerful, melodic, haunting, and Whitehorn once again slips into a perfect lead guitar role with that signature Hammond-organ riding the finale with beautiful horns. Pete Brown takes a respectable lyrical page from Keith Reid with political-sturdy verses. No pomposity. This one has an emotional melody that is relevant and time and care to this music: applied. No one in rock music since 1967 has ever approached the literate rock of this band and how it marries their intense music and arrangement to the presentation. Some come close, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, PFM (but what they lack is a solid foundation in the blues - that which Procol Harum possesses and understands). Potency…that’s the word that best describes Procol Harum yesterday…and today as well !

1971
Super Bad



Come al solito ho cercato di integrare all'ascolto il testo parziale pubblicato su Vietnam War Songs, in questo caso con scarso successo...

(1972)
dall'album Back Stabbers

(1971?)

Double-sided anti-Vietnam War single, with the tracks "Why Is It?" and "When I Come Home"

(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... (continua)

(1989)
Album: Il bambino che baciava... e marameo alla morte

[2017]
Album: Human Rights

[2003]
Álbum: Inerte (Demo)

Una canción de crítica social. Es difícil ver la verdad bajo el fuego, pero la verdad es la verdad.. Guerra de uno es una canción contundente, con una realidad negra y una atmósfera negra.

2000
Mas Duros Que Nunca

Gatillo fácil - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

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

Der Himmel über Berlin
[1987]

Film / Movie / Elokuva:
Wim Wenders
Der Himmel über Berlin / Il cielo sopra Berlino / Wings of Desire / Les Ailes du désir / Berliinin taivaan alla

Musik / Musica / Music / Musique / Sävel:
Jürgen Knieper

Album: Der Himmel Über Berlin

“Auf jeden Fall kann man sich nicht verlaufen, man kommt immer wieder an der Mauer an /In ogni caso non ci si può perdere, alla fine si arriva sempre al muro è la frase che pronuncia Marion, la donna di cui Damiel si innamora, entrambi protagonisti del film. Die Mauer / il Muro non è l’argomento principale del film ma se non fosse stato in servizio, a mio avviso, Wenders non avrebbe concepito il film come poi lo ha realizzato.
Il film è un tessuto tra passato e presente, tra una città che cinquant’anni prima era il centro dell’Europa, una cultura secolare da cui non era possibile prescindere ed una città ridotta... (continua)

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.

1970

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

[1972]
Testo di Giulio Rapetti, in arte Mogol
Musica di Lucio Battisti
Title track dell'album del 1972, da cui anche Gente per bene e gente per male, già su queste pagine.

Capolavoro assoluto, sia dal punto di vista poetico che da quello musicale.
Un testo probabilmente riferito alle vicende personali di Mogol in quel periodo, e tuttavia capace di un afflato universale contro la violenza e la ferocia dilaganti nel mondo, per l'amore universale, non solo dell'uomo e della donna ma dell'essere umano per la Terra e la Natura, di ogni essere umano verso i propri simili e per l'ambiente in cui viviamo.
Capolavoro umiliato da destra, che arrivò a violentare il testo interprentandolo addirittura come nostalgico del Ventennio, e da sinistra, bollato come manifesto di un autore fascistoide dedito ad un borghese riflusso nel privato.
Era semplicemente il Suo Canto Libero, e per questa la propongo, umilmente negli Extra, convinto però che si tratti proprio di una Canzone Contro la Guerra DOCG...

Pubblicato in Broadside #83 (Agosto 1967)

(1994)
Uno dei due inediti nella raccolta E adesso voglio la luna (I grandi successi)

[2018]
Álbum: Hijos de la Tierra

Mi querida madrecita Tierra,

Quiero pedirte perdón por las heridas que generó la irreverencia de mis hermanos; perdón por el decidido sufrimiento y la propagación de la estupidez, usando el seudónimo de progreso.
Perdón por continuar durmiendo tranquilos mientras desaparecen tus pulmones de bosques, hogar profanado de miles de especies; perdón por el atareado suicidio cotidiano.
Perdón también por cerrar las manos en vez de abrir los corazones; por desafiar los amaneceres, ignorándolos; por no tener tiempo para saborear horas vespertinas, recordando las enseñanzas del abuelo.

Quizás ya pasó mucho tiempo, tal vez es demasiado tarde; probablemente son muchos los monstruos ecocidas, sin embargo hoy quiero decirte mi Pachamama, que aún quedamos algunos de la tribu de los guardianes de la vida; aún permanece de pie nuestro optimismo, mientras nuestros... (continua)

(1973)
Words and music by Ron Turner
Broadside #123

Frank James Clearwater (1925-1973) – Find a Grave...

Frank Clearwater era un Cherokee (e non Apache come dice la canzone) ucciso da un maresciallo dell'esercito statunitense durante una protesta per i diritti dei nativi americani nel luogo simbolico di Wounded Knee.

1973
album: Broadside Number Seven

(1968)