Last Drink with Don

Annotation

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), released on the label 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 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list. 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. Also featured in: • Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Songs • Richard Nixon & Watergate Songs • Vietnam War: Mexican-American Songs • Vietnam War: US Military & Veteran Songs • Vietnam War: Peace, Protest, & Anti-War SongsThis album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces - recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina). The album started out with a recruitment song, "Join the GI movement", written by Barbara Dane: "I am a GI rebel as brave as I can be....come and join the GI movement". The song "Ballad of Richard Campos", written by Daniel Valdez, paid tribute to a Hispanic man killed in Vietnam: "in a terminal in Oakland lies the brown body of a man, dead at 27, dead and gone to heaven, killed far away in Vietnam" - thus a Hispanic Civil Rights track. The song "Last Drink With Don" (lyrics written by Fred Gardner, and music by Barbara Dane) took a poetic approach: "here's to the butterfly in the tropics of Tonkin...and here's to the sky that is not filled with planes". The album also covered "Just Another Day" by Bill Frederick (on the 1967 album Hey, Hey, LBJ), while the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" made references to the Kent State killings, Richard Nixon, and the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers, part of the Chicago 1968 demonstrations, both a Vietnam and Civil Rights song. Of particular interest, the tune "The Resistance Hymn" dealt with the draft part of the anti-war movement, in which the narrator went to prison as a conscientious objector. Some people called the narrator a coward for not fighting, and suggested that the protesters provided support to the communists, thus calling them traitors. Also of interest, the album included a re-worked version of the song "Bring Them Home", composed by Pete Seeger, which argued that the war was unjust, and that it was patriotic to bring home the soldiers and end the war. It contained the line "in Chicago or Vietnam, they're tryin' to get us to be the man" - which may be a reference to the Chicago 1968 demonstrations. Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs

FTA!: Songs of the GI Resistance (Paredon Records (# P-1003), released on the label 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 Dane was born on 12 May 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list. 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. This album focused on the anti-war movement, in particular those who were members of the US armed forces - recorded at Fort Hood (Texas), Fort Benning (Georgia), and Fort Bragg (North Carolina). The album started out with a recruitment song, "Join the GI movement", written by Barbara Dane: "I am a GI rebel as brave as I can be....come and join the GI movement". The song "Ballad of Richard Campos", written by Daniel Valdez, paid tribute to a man killed in Vietnam: "in a terminal in Oakland lies the brown body of a man, dead at 27, dead and gone to heaven, killed far away in Vietnam". The song "Last Drink With Don" (lyrics written by Fred Gardner, and music by Barbara Dane) took a poetic approach: "here's to the butterfly in the tropics of Tonkin...and here's to the sky that is not filled with planes". The album also covered "Just Another Day" by Bill Frederick (on the 1967 album Hey, Hey, LBJ), while the song "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" made references to the Kent State killings, Richard Nixon, and the imprisonment of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers (see that section). Sources1FTA - Songs of the GI Resistance (Barbara Dane)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: They say I was born in the land of the free / But the home of the briefcase is all I can see / With our houses and highways we've covered the land / But our freedom's a fable, if our conscience is banned / So I'm going to prison so I can be free / I'm going to prison for what I believe / I've got something I'll die for, what else can they do? / I've got something to live for, and how about you?... / Some call me a coward, some call me a fool / The Daily News call me a communist tool / But I know you're my buddy, so you'll understand / I'll be true to myself or I can't be a man If you love your Uncle Sam, bring 'em home.... / Stop the war in Vietnam, bring 'em home... / 45 thousand dead and gone and Uncle Sam is in the wrong / We want to end this war right now / Don't take a genius to figure out how / Let 'em fly, or let 'em float, peck 'em up in a bi-ass boat / They said it was a freedom fight, well now that's just about half right! / There’s just one big fallacy, it's our own GIs that wanna be free / GIs fight, and GIs die / Some get rich while Nixon lies / In Chicago or Vietnam, they're tryin' to get us to be 'the man' / Well buddy, I've got news for you / I got better things to do / We're goin' down to Houston town, turn this murderin' system 'round / The gen'rals would like us all to pray / But it looks like marchin's the only way / If they say that's not the way, we'll give 'em one big FTA"] If you love your Uncle Sam, bring 'em home.... / Stop the war in…

Notes

Paredon P1003, © 1970 Paredon Records, PO Box 889, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11202; "Sung by Barbara Dane with active-duty GIs", "Recorded at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina"; edited by Irwin Silber. The front shows a line of helmeted GIs walking and flashing peace signs. The 16-page booklet opens with a photograph of Barbara Dane at the Oleo Strut, Fort Hood, Texas (photo by Carolyn Mugar), and contains "About the GI Movement" by Irwin Silber, on the GI coffee houses and underground papers; "If This Be Treason..." by Barbara Dane, describing singing for soldiers and Marines at the Oleo Strut, Ft. Dix and an Oceanside USO; notes on each song; full lyrics with credits; "Barbara Dane: Singer for the GI Movement" by Howard Levy; and "Barbara Dane Speaks to the GI Movement", reprinted from The Fatigue Press, GI newspaper, Fort Hood, Texas, an autobiographical…

About the artist

Born 12 May 1927, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Died 20 October 2024, Oakland, California, USA

Themes

Anti-War

In collections

Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · US Military & Veteran Songs · Draft Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · 1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · Mexican-American / Hispanic Songs