March To The Witch's Castle

Annotation

The song "March to the Witch's Castle" (Westbound Records # WB 2022) is another important representation of P.O.W.s and veterans after the Paris Peace Accords, looking at their adjustment to the US non-wartime society. The narrator started by noting the date 12 February 1973 as the "happiest day" in thirteen years - the beginning of Operation Homecoming, returning American prisoners of war (P.O.W.s) to the US, held by North Vietnam, and thus answering the "prayers of thousands". However, the narrator soon turned his attention to "the nightmare of readjustment". It recalled the veteran's war time struggles, with the lines "death waited in the shadows...his enemies were many", as well as problems back home, such as the news that "his loved one remarried" while a P.O.W. It also included an early reference to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): "what has happened to his mind". At the end of the song the narrator criticised the 'peace with honor' claim of President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, asking how it could be when "thousands of boys gave their life".& Vietnam War: Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

The song "March to the Witch's Castle" (Westbound Records # WB 2022) is another important representation of P.O.W.s and veterans after the Paris Peace Accords, looking at their adjustment to the US non-wartime society. The narrator started by noting the date 12 February 1973 as the "happiest day" in thirteen years - the beginning of Operation Homecoming, returning American prisoners of war (P.O.W.s) to the US, held by North Vietnam, and thus answering the "prayers of thousands". However, the narrator soon turned his attention to "the nightmare of readjustment". It recalled the veteran's war time struggles, with the lines "death waited in the shadows...his enemies were many", as well as problems back home, such as the news that "his loved one remarried" while a P.O.W. It also included an early reference to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): "what has happened to his mind". At the end of the song the narrator criticised the 'peace with honor' claim of President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, asking how it could be when "thousands of boys gave their life".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: February 12th, 1973, the prayers of thousands were answered / The war was over, and the first of the prisoners returned... / It was the happiest day in up to thirteen years / For others, the real nightmare had just begun, the nightmare of readjustment... / Father, bless the soldier who has returned home from the war / He has fought with all his might, yet he knew not for what or who he was fighting for / Death waited in the shadows, as he crawled by night for his country / His enemies were many, including the habit he still cannot break... / What has happened to his mind and help us understand his reaction to the changes that have taken place here at home / Help him understand, that when his loved one remarried they were truly under the impression that he was dead... / Someone said this war ended with 'peace with honor' / But can there truly be? Is there such a thing? / Thousands of boys gave their life, and for what?

About the artist

American funk-rock band formed in 1968 in Plainfield, New Jersey, by George Clinton as the band counterpart to his Parliament vocal group. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Soldier's Perspective · P.O.W. · Nixon

In collections

P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs