The Vietnam War and Rock and Roll Music Essay - 1572 Words

Fan blades/helicopter blades rotating slowly above a troubled dreamer, Jim Morrisons voice singing The End... Young soldiers, on their way to Vietnam in the summer of Woodstock, marching on board their plane at Ft. Dix singing Fixing To Die... Correspondent Michael Herr catching helicopter rides out to the firebases, cassette rock and roll in one ear and door- gun fire in the other, or crouched under fire in a rice paddy while Jimi Hendrix music blares from the recorder held by the soldier next to him... Grunts linking arms in a beery E.M. club and screaming out the lyrics to the Animals We Gotta Get Out of This Place... The rock and roll†¦show more content†¦Other songs grew directly out of the Vietnam experience: songs about flying at night along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, defoliating triple-canopy jungle, engaging in firefights with an unseen enemy, or counting the days left in a 365-day tour. In some cases both the words and music were original, usually new lyrics were set to folk, country or popular tunes. Barry Sadlers Ballad of the Green Berets alone spawned dozens of parodies. These songs served as a strategy for survival, as a means of unit bonding and definition, as entertainment, and as a way of expressing emotion. All of the traditional themes of military folksong can be found in these songs: praise of the great leader, celebration of heroic deeds, laments for the death of comrades, disparagement of other units, and complaints about incompetent officers and vainglorious rear-echelon personnel. Like soldiers and sailors from time immemorial they sang of epic drinking bouts and encounters with exotic young women. Songs provided a means for the expression of protest, fear and frustration, of grief and of longing for home. Some of the songs show empathy with the enemy; Chip Dockery, who served with the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Udorn, wrote a superb series of songs from the point of the North Vietnamese truck drivers on the Ho Chi Minh trail. Others display a kind of black humor mixed with violence: Strafe the Town and Kill theShow MoreRelated The Effects Of War And Music Together Essay737 Words   |  3 PagesEffects of War and Music Together How are music and war related? Music puts a voice in the people’s ears, and tells them whether or not we should be involved in that war. It helped out the troops when they were over seas to not be so home sick. Also, every war preceding the Vietnam War had music to help or support the war, but the Vietnam War is where music during wartime changed. 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(Britannica) The sixties were about assassination, unforgettable fashion, new styles of music, civil rights, gay and women’s liberation, Vietnam, Neil Armstrong landing on the m oon, peace marches, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, andRead MoreI Can t Sing It Without Thinking About Syd1647 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"I can’t sing it without thinking about Syd.† For the members of the 1960s and 1970s rock and roll band, Pink Floyd, the title track to their album Wish You Were Here uncovers emotional thoughts and feelings regarding their band mate, Syd Barrett, in a highly broad sense. At the height of the Vietnam war, tensions were high in America due to the anti-war movement. For those involved with this movement, a series of different emotions may be evoked from this song. Pink Floyd struggled as an ensembleRead More Youth Rebelliion In The 1950s Essay1028 Words   |  5 Pagesdissatisfied with certain conservative aspects of society and their conduct reflected this. 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