Vietnam: The Music of Protest

[seemslikeadream]

By Steve Schifferes
BBC News

The Vietnam war spurred a protest movement that spread among the student movement in the 1960s. And songs were an important part of that protest.

In the early 1960s, the folk-song movement was already well-established with artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan reaching a relatively small but devoted audience.

Folk singers like Joan Baez led early anti-war protests
Many folk singers were closely connected with the civil rights movement which was reaching its climax with mass demonstrations against segregation in Southern cities like Selma and Birmingham.

Songs like "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" by Bob Dylan and "Birmingham Sunday" by Joan Baez emphasised the losses in the civil rights struggle.

more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4498011.stm

[In_The_Wind]

1. ~

:kick:

[OneBlueSky]

2. one of my personal favorites . . . "I Ain't Marching Anymore" . . .

by Phil Ochs . . . the chorus says it all . . .

Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I've killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying I saw many more dying
But I ain't marchin' anymore

(chorus)

It's always the old to lead us to the war
Always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all

For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brothers
And so many others
But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain't marchin' anymore

(chorus)

For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marchin' anymore

Now the labor leader's screamin'
when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason,"
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason,"
But I ain't marchin' any more,
No I ain't marchin' any more

[chieftain]

3. There were so many great songs, some old some new.

The anti war version of Waltzing Matilda was particularly moving to me, along with Masters of War and Willie MacBride. Sadly, we have to start singing them again for a whole new generation. Will we ever learn?

[carnie_sf]

4. I always loved

Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag

[seemslikeadream]

5. No Man Can Find The War

No Man Can Find The War

Photographs of guns and flame
Scarlet skull and distant game
Bayonet and jungle grin
Nightmares dreamed by bleeding men
Lookouts tremble on the shore
But no man can find the war

Tape recorders echo scream
Orders fly like bullet stream
Drums and cannons laugh aloud
Whistles come from ashen shroud
Leaders damn the world and roar
But no man can find the war

Is the war across the sea?
Is the war behind the sky?
Have you each and all gone blind:
Is the war inside your mind?

Humans weep at human death
All the talkers lose their breath
Movies paint a chaos tale
Singers see and poets wail
All the world kows the score
But no man can find the war

Tim Buckley