Never much of a fan of that gang - except for their Canadian member!
Youngsters treasure their music. It is a big part of their life.
American youth in Vietnam were no different.
(It is said that the war in Vietnam was a "teen-age" war, while the average age of the American fighting in WWII was 26. Some dispute this number, by 2 yrs or so. Of those killed, 61% were not old enough to vote.)
Eventually, troops began to express their anger by joining in, loudly, on certain stanzas from songs like:
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by The Animals
Edwin Starr’s “War”
"Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
And everybody was homesick for the USA, some days.
Since there were a lot of 'brothers' in S. Vietnam, I heard a lot of MoTown. (7,200 of the 58,000 on the Wall were African-Americans)
For instance:
"The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding
and...pretty much anything from Aretha Franklin!
and surprisingly, you'd hear the softer stuff, too, like - "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by Peter, Paul and Mary
In bunkers, hootches, hosp. wards, along flight lines and in hangars - music was were the soldiers were, if at all possible.
I never made it to any cities of any size during my tour - but I suspect the 'clubs' were blasting it out every day. (Pleiku, the closest, was off limits due to the presence of VC in the town)
Stig
