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Unreleased recording — no record exists, so there is nothing to scan
Release Unreleased
Year 1966
Format Unreleased · Unreleased
Country Australia
Language English
Songs here 3 in the archive
Citation: Justin A. Brummer, Vietnam War Song Project (VWSP) — Clem Parkinson, Unreleased; cite each song by its SongID

Unreleased

1966 · Unreleased · Not On Label · Australia
3 songs from this release are in the archive, listed below in catalogue order. Track positions are not recorded; the release may carry other songs that do not reference the war. Most common themes: Anti-War, Draft, Satire.
Annotation
Clem Parkinson, contemporary folk artist, born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He wrote the song "Kevin Conway" , about the first Australian casualty in the Vietnam War. Conway, born 11 December 1928, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was a Warrant Officer Class 2, with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. He was killed in action (K.I.A.), in the Battle of Nam Dong, South Vietnam on 6 July 1964, aged 35 years, buried at Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. His remains were repatriated to Australia 2nd June 2016.123

There is a recording of the song at the National Library of Australia, dated 1966, under the title: "Clem Parkinson sings his own contemporary folk songs in the Norm O'Connor folklore collection".4 The lyrics of this song featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand. Notes in the book said "the first Australian casualty of the Vietnam War was a young warrant officer by the name of Kevin Conway. He was killed in July of 1966. About myself: I am 37 years of age, a member of the New Theatre Drama Group and also a member of the Victoria Folk Music Club in Melbourne". The book dated the lyrics "1968", while the National Library of Australia, as mentioned above, provided the date "1966", so there is a discrepancy.

This song, while reflecting on the first Australian death in the Vietnam War, took the opportunity to present a strong anti-war position, on the grounds that it was an unjust war: "he who dies for tyranny has thrown his life away" . Looking at the North Vietnamese side-of-the-story, the narrator noted that the "peasants fought for freedom" , and that "a hundred billion dollars" could not stop them. The US and its allies (such as Australia), may "call themselves advisors, but they're killers" . On Conway, the narrator pondered if he did "curse the men who sent him to meet his tragic death" .

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Collections
Songs from this release appear in these 3 curated collections.
The songs
1.
1966 · Unreleased · Not On Label · Australia · Unreleased

Recording of the song at the National Library of Australia, dated 1966, under the title: "Clem Parkinson sings his own contemporary folk songs in the Norm O'Connor folklore collection". The lyrics of this song featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969.

2.
Unknown date · Unreleased · Not On Label · Melbourne, Australia · Unreleased

To the tune of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"; written in the late 1960s and handed out in hundreds of copies at Melbourne Moratorium meetings. Printed in Ratbags & Rabblerousers.

3.
Unknown date · Unreleased · Not On Label · Melbourne, Australia · Unreleased

To the tune of "The Wearing of the Green"; on Harold Holt's five weeks at Puckapunyal in 1940. Printed in Ratbags & Rabblerousers.