What's your favorite Vietnam-era war song?

[icymist]

For me, it's kind of a toss up between Country Joe's 'I Feel Like I'm A Fix'n To Die' and Arlo Guthrey's 'Alice's Restaurant'. Both are good songs, but I'm sure there are many others that I have forgotten about.

[XanaDUer]

1. "For What It's Worth".

N/t.

[ewagner]

3. Mine too

Although Scarborough Fair/Canticle had some meaning to me also.........had to listen closely for the phrase "...and to fight for a cause, made long ago, forgotten"

[Commendatori]

25. Same here

[Westegg]

29. Technically, that was about the "riots" on the Sunset Strip...

...circa '66/'67, when Mayor Sam Yorty and the LAPD were cracking down on hippies and "flower children" who were attempting to exerice their right of free speech and the right to party as long as they wanted to without a curfew.

For actual Vietnam content, I'd go with "Fortunate Son" or Hendrix's "Machine Gun"---especially the live versions from the Fillmore East.

[Mrs. Venation]

2. "Four Dead In Ohio"

and "The Eve of Destruction"

[ewagner]

6. I must be getting old

I used to have the words to Four Dead In Ohio memorized and now can't even remember them. Know where I could find the lyrics?

[ET Awful]

10. Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'

We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.

[ewagner]

12. THANKS!!!! n/t

[ET Awful]

13. As the story goes. . .

Neil Young was sitting around with the CSN guys and they had just gotten the copy of Life with the Kent State story. Neil was really upset, walked out of the room and came back a short time letter with the song written. You can hear the anguished cries of "Why?" "How many more?" Which were just kind of spontaneous during the recording. There's a LOT of raw emotion in that original recording if you pay attention, especially near the end of the song.

[ewagner]

21. I got the news

about Kent State as I was going in to my Macro Econ finals.

I was shocked so I finished (bombed) the test in 15 minutes and headed out to the campus center to see what happened.

Lots of shock. Didn't know what to think.

[Sandpiper]

4. Fortunate Son

CCR rules!

[Loonman]

8. That's the only part of "Gump" I like

When Forrest shows up in Vietnam and the helicopter blasts right past the screen with "FS" playing.

[Loonman]

5. "Fortunate Son"

Creedence, man!

[Doug Decker]

7. Fortunate Son...

just listen to the words, it's about *.

[kodi]

37. dovetail that sucker with "Run Through The Jungle”

.

[VOX]

30. "Fortunate Son" is *kick-ass*! Add Hendrix's "Star-Spangled Banner"...

And there's not much need for any more!

:toast:

[Sandpiper]

9. Man in Black

by Johnny Cash

It's a tie between that and Fortunate Son.

[ET Awful]

11. What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Ah, what's going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on
Right on

Father, father, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's going on - Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby

. . .

But only because I'm in that kind of mood. On another day I would have said One Tin Soldier by Coven, Eve of Destruction, or any number of other songs :).

[Skittles]

14. ditto

I think of The Wall every time I hear it.

[icymist]

15. I also admire Jimi Hendrix's 'Machine Gun' and

a song called 'Sky Pilot', but I forget who did that one.

[redqueen]

17. Eric Burdon I think n/t

[icymist]

18. Yeah! Eric Burdon with War.

Now I remember. Thanks!

[woofless]

26. Nope, The Animals. Before War.

[icymist]

28. Really?! I didn't know that. Thanks.

:kick:

[redqueen]

35. I actually typed '& the Animals'

But I wasn't sure and I'm a coward so I just deleted that part.

[DinahMoeHum]

16. Country Joe also did a song called "Superbird". . .

I can't help but think about the lyrics and how timely they seem to be right now. I think he should sing it again as an anti-Bush campaign song.
Here's the lyrics. I took the liberty to adapt them to the present.
(adaptations are in parentheses):


SUPERBIRD

Well, look up yonder in the sky what is that I pray ? (what is that I see??)
Yeah, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a man insane,
It's my president L.B.J. (It's my president, G.W.B.)
I said he's flyin' high way up in the sky just like Superman,
But I got a little piece of kryptonite,
I'm gonna bring him back to land.

I said come out Lyndon (Bushie) with your hands held high,
Drop your guns, baby, reach for the sky.
I got you surrounded and you ain't got a chance,
Send you back to Texas, make you work on your ranch,
Yeah, yeah.

Well, he can call Super Woman and her Super Dogs,
But it won't do him no good,
Yeah, I found out why from a Russian spy (from Valerie the spy)
He ain't nothin' but a comic book.

We're gonna pull him off the stands and clean up the land,
We're gonna start us a brand new day.
And what is more I got the Fantastic Four (I got the X-Men in tow)
And Spiderman to help him on his way.

I said come out Lyndon (Bushie) with your hands held high,
Drop your guns, baby, reach for the sky.
I got you surrounded and you ain't got a chance,
Gonna send you back to Texas, make you work on your ranch,
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we're gonna make him an agricultural worker ... (guest worker)
Part of his own poverty program. (immigrant program)



(c) 1967 Country Joe McDonald
Tradition Music, BMI


P.S. "Valerie the spy" is a tip of the hat to Valerie Plame, CIA agent and wife of Amb. Joe Wilson. Can't wait for his book where he names names !!


:kick:

[icymist]

19. Kick!

:kick:

[BringEmOn]

20. "War" by Edwin Starr

"Fortunate Son" CCR
"Get Together" Youngbloods
"Ohio" CSNY
"For What It's Worth" Buffalo Springfield

[Whitacre D_WI]

22. "The Ballad of the Green Berets" by Sgt. Barry Sadler

Okay, my real answer is "2 + 2 = ?" by the Bob Seger System.

[icymist]

27. Yeah. It got a beat. You could dance to it.

I'll give it a 72! (on Bandstand)

Just kidding. All in good fun Whitacre D_WI. :)

[benddem]

23. In Vietnam my favorite was

"We gotta get out of this place" :)

[Parrcrow]

24. Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire

and For What its Worth by Buffalo Springfield

[Penndems]

31. "Monster" by Steppenwolf

It just sums up our whole policy of aggression in about five minutes.

Listening to it reminds me that some things really never do change.
:(

[UnAmericanJoe]

32. Technically anti-war songs but I'd pick

Just about anything by Phil Ochs.

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

33. Don McLean's 'The Grave'

Yeah, I know it was on American Pie, and I know George Michael or some such pop guy reissued it. But that doesn't make it any less powerful.

[clidaw]

34. I know this doesn't have any words,

but the Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner as good a protest song than anything I've heard from that era. It just explodes anger. I also liked Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon", although it didn't come out until 1982. The last verse is especially chilling.

[AngryAmish]

36. "Plate in My Head" by the Didgits

[oneighty]

38. Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket,

Surfing Bird.

There are many great songs of the period. Surfing Bird I guess was not one of them, but?

180

[Kat45]

39. "Born in the USA" is a good anti-Nam song from later years

and Reagan was so stupid to think it was a rah-rah-gung-ho American anthem that would be great for his campaign.

For songs from the Vietnam era itself, I'd say the Country Joe one is my favorite (with the very appropriate intro of the 'Fish Cheer').

[icymist]

40. I actually did the Fish Cheer once during the first Golf War.

It was at a little bar in Central Illinois. I yelled out at everybody from the stage "Give me a F" everyone yells "F"....
When I got to 'K' and everyone responded properly I then yelled out "What's that spell?" and some guy in the back yells to me "We're illiterate!" What a hoot!

[SW FL Dem]

41. Hard choice

War, 4 dead in Ohio, Where have all the flowers gone