Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietnam) Part 2
1969 · Flying Dutchman FD 26009 · USA
- Artist
- Leon Thomas
- Title
- Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietnam) Part 2
- Release
- Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietman) Part 1 / Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietman) Part 2
- Year
- 1969
- Label
- Flying Dutchman # FD 26009
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Jazz · Jazz
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs
Leon Thomas, born on 4 October 1937 in East Saint-Louis, Illinois, USA, and died on 8 May 1999 in New York, USA, an American Avant-Garde Jazz musician, released the song "Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietnam)" (Flying Dutchman # FD 26009), split into two tracks across this single. It featured on the 1969 album Spirits Known and Unknown (Flying Dutchman # FD-10115). The single received limited coverage in Billboard magazine. (1) This song had a blues structure and tone, taking a strong anti-war position: "it’s a dirty mean war". The narrator declared "you can throw me in jail, but I ain’t goin’ to Vietnam". The song particularly took note of the use of napalm and its indiscriminate use: "got to drop some napalm... never see the guy he’s got to kill" - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973. (2) (3) (4) (5)
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Born 4 October 1937, East St. Louis, Illinois, USA. Jazz and blues vocalist noted for his yodel-like glottal technique; sang on Pharoah Sanders' The Creator Has a Master Plan and recorded the Vietnam-referencing Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietnam). Died 8 May 1999, New York City, USA. [Source: Wikipedia]