This album contained four songs that dealt with Vietnam War issues. These are "It Could Have Been Me" by Holly Near about the Kent State, Ohio demonstration, which also appeared on her LP A Live Album (see the sub-list); Oscar Brand's "A Very Nice Country" about Americans living in Canada in exile (because of draft avoidance and opposition to the war); "Ballad of the Unknown Soldier" by Barbara Dane. Finally, it included the song "Play Your Guitars, American Friends" by Alfonso Ray Riate, a Vietnam veteran who had been a P.O.W. Dane wrote in the record booklet that: "I first heard Al Riate sing as he stood with two other former POWs on the platform of a rally for amnesty in Washington, D.C. He was simply glowing with the joy of finally being there....I immediately asked him if he would record one of the Vietnamese songs...Al...confirmed the fact that far more fellow POWs felt as they did than identified with the officers who had kept themselves apart in sour disdain of the Vietnamese, with their sights on their future military careers".2
Riate was born on 29 April 1945 in Sebastopol, California, USA, and died on 28 November 1984, in Lynwood, CA, USA. He joined the US Marine Corps in December 1964 at the age of 19. His father came from the Philipines, and his mother was a Native American from California. The army reported Riate M.I.A. on 26 April 1967 following a battle in Quang Tri Province in the vicinity of Hill 861. On 12 July 1967 he was reported K.I.A., but body not recovered (B.N.R.). A memorial plaque erected says: "1945-1967". However, the army eventually reported that he was in fact a P.O.W. He returned to the US on 16 March 1973.3 The army charged Riate for collaborating with the enemy, but the charges were dropped in 1973.4
Composed in Hanoi in December 1969 by Phạm Tuyên, a well-known North Vietnamese songwriter, about an anti-war demonstration in the US, which became popular across North Vietnam.5 It started out with an English spoken-word introduction from Riate, who told the listener that he had served "six years as an American prisoner of war in Vietnam" . He then recited the song in Vietnamese, which took an anti-war, peace perspective, calling on Americans to march and play songs of protest against US intervention in Vietnam.
- 1 What Now People, Vol. 1 - Paredon 2001 ↩
- 2 What Now People, Vol. 1 - Paredon 2001 ↩
- 3 Find a Grave ↩
- 4 Chicago Tribune: Army set to drop pow case (link no longer available) ↩
- 5 Wikipedia: Phạm Tuyên ↩
Born 12 May 1927, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Died 20 October 2024, Oakland, California, USA
Alfonso Ray Riate (1945-1984), born in Sebastopol, California to a Filipino father and Karuk mother, was a US Marine captured in Quang Tri Province in 1967 and held POW until 1973, becoming a member of the antiwar 'Peace Committee' of captured servicemen; he wrote 'Play Your Guitars, American Friends' in captivity and recorded it for the compilation 'What Now, People?' on Barbara Dane's Paredon Records (1975). He died in Lynwood, California in 1984. [Source: Wilber & Lembcke, 'Dissenting POWs' (Monthly Review Press); POW Network]
Canadian-American folk singer and radio host, born 7 February 1920 in Winnipeg, Canada; died 30 September 2016 in Great Neck, New York. [Source: Wikipedia]
Paredon P-2001, "What Now, People?" Vol. 1 (© 1975; Discogs gives 1976), side 1 band 2, 5:37; words and music Holly Near, © 1974 Hereford Music. A studio version, not the live Redwood recording (VWSP1355). Verses on Kent State, Víctor Jara, and a Vietnamese woman who "defends a village in the day". [From the record booklet]
Paredon P-2001, "What Now, People?" Vol. 1 (© 1975; Discogs gives 1976), side 2 band 3, 2:53, credited "The Redwing"; words and music Larry Robbin, © 1973 L. Robbin. About the Allen-Bradley factory clock tower in Milwaukee; the company made electronic parts used in the war. [From the record booklet]