The Tone of Uncle Ho

Annotation — North Vietnamese Songs

Presented as traditional Vietnamese folk songs on the A-side, and topical songs of the war on the B-side, most of which fit into the Nhạc đỏ ("Red Music") genre. None of them are field recordings, but recorded in Hanoi, some with highly arranged orchestrations. Most of these are taken from Dihavina record label, originally the state label of North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) before reunification in 1975. As discussed in Lonán Ó Briain's book Voices of Vietnam: A Century of Radio, Red Music, and Revolution (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2022), some of these would have been broadcast on North Vietnamese radio and heard on public speaker systems throughout the country, although reference is made to representation in the LP booklet. Barbara Dane wrote the notes in the booklet - she co-founded the label Paredon Records, which released records based "on the needs of the people's movements all over the world". It has a very similar background to the LP "Vietnam Will Win! Liberation Songs of the Vietnamese People Recorded in Vietnam" below, largely aimed at the American anti-war market. "March into Saigon" featured on the B-side of topic songs, written as a tribute to the 1968 Tet Offensive, when the North Vietnamese attacked the US forces directly in Saigon.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Our land in the southern region is lovely, And the sound of Uncle Ho Warms the hearts of our people.

Notes

Also issued on PGP RTB LPV 160 (Yugoslavia, 1969). Paredon P 1008 (booklet: "Paredon Records P - 1008"), "© 1971 by Paredon Records, PO Box 889, Brooklyn, N Y 11202"; the front cover is subtitled "Liberation songs of the Vietnamese people recorded in Vietnam" and shows a photograph of armed young women resting in the forest. The eight-page booklet opens with a Paredon Records statement presenting the record as a way for Americans to understand the war against "giac My" (American aggression) and to turn anger into struggle, followed by an essay signed Barbara Dane on the role of song in the Vietnamese resistance, explaining that Side 1 holds traditional and Side 2 contemporary songs. A translator's note discusses rendering Vietnamese poetic language (e.g. "anh hung") into English. All recorded material was taken from Vietnamese sources; translations and background were provided by…

About the artist

Various Artists

Themes

Vietnamese Perspective · Vietnamese Patriotic

In collections

North Vietnamese Songs