Bajo el arco del sol [Under the Arc of the Sun: Armed Struggle]

Annotation

Compilation of Spanish-language South American protest songs (Paredon Records # PAR01001), released in the US, which included three tracks related to the Vietnam War. Paredon Records was founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, see the note below. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world.Firstly, this LP included the track "Bajo el arco del sol" ("Under the Arc of the Sun: Armed Struggle") by Silvio Rodríguez, born on 29 November 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana, Cuba. This song was a protest against imperialism across the world, but made several specific references to the Vietnam conflict: "look at my wounds in those other places, like Indochina", and "I divided my weeping by colors...and it was like the Mekong". Note that Silvio Rodríguez was a member of the Cuban group Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC, an important band in the Nueva canción latinoamericana movement, featuring several prominent artists. This group released the Vietnam song "Su nombre' Ho Chi Minh (Your Name, Ho Chi Minh)" on the album Cuba va! Songs of the New Generation of Revolutionary Cuba, discussed below. Sources1What Now People, Vol. 1 - Paredon 2001↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music

Compilation of Spanish-language South American protest songs (Paredon Records # PAR01001), released in the US, which included three tracks related to the Vietnam War. Paredon Records was founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, see the note below. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world. Firstly, this LP included the track "Bajo el arco del sol" ("Under the Arc of the Sun: Armed Struggle") by Silvio Rodríguez, born on 29 November 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana, Cuba. This song was a protest against imperialism across the world, but made several specific references to the Vietnam conflict: "look at my wounds in those other places, like Indochina", and "I divided my weeping by colors...and it was like the Mekong". Note that Silvio Rodríguez was a member of the Cuban group Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC, an important band in the Nueva canción latinoamericana movement, featuring several prominent artists. This group released the Vietnam song "Su nombre' Ho Chi Minh (Your Name, Ho Chi Minh)" on the album Cuba va! Songs of the New Generation of Revolutionary Cuba, discussed below. Sources1What Now People, Vol. 1 - Paredon 2001↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: The yankees are pretty big guys / Some of them look like giants / And some like elephants / But they don't have any hearts / The Vietnamese are pretty small, pretty small yes / But with such hearts, like this, big like this / The yankees have lots of cannons, cannons by the thousands and military academies / But they don't have any hearts / The yankees have airplanes, they have bombs and rifles, and bullets by the millions / But they don't have hearts / The yankees have big piles of gunship helicopters, they have ships and mortors / But they don't have any hearts / That's why so many times they are knocked out by the Vietnamese / People who are very small / But yet, they have the hearts!" (1) Born in a waterfront neighboorhood / He wet his feet there one morning / And told himself, 'the whole world is my home!' / Thousands of rocks at the windos / Kisses under foreign stairways / Maybe a little marijuana... / And a pocket knife / Johnny, you don't know why... / Billy...Willy / He went to look for an old man with whiskers / With blue and white striped suit, who told him / 'The army is calling you, Asia' / He was sure that Superman and Batman would always save face for him / And everything would be like a day at the beach / The alien jungle is now his home / And feeling thirsty there one morning, he was going towards a well full of water / And fell into pit full of bamboo pricks

About the artist

born on 29 November 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana, Cuba.

Themes

Anti-War · Anti-Imperialism · Mekong Delta

In collections

Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]