The Viet Nam Blues
1965 · Dot 16766 · USA
- Artist
- Jack Sanders
- Title
- The Viet Nam Blues
- Release
- The Viet Nam Blues / The Greatest Master
- Year
- 1965
- Label
- Dot # 16766
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Kris Kristofferson
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
The song "The Viet Nam Blues" (Dot Records # 16766), written by Kris Kristofferson, took a patriotic line. On 28 August 1965 Billboard reported that "Capt. Kris Kristofferson, 23, of Texas, a Rhodes scholar, got out of the army recently, met songwriter Marijohn Wilkin, who persuaded him to come to Nashville and try his hand as a songwriter. He agreed, signed with Buckhorn Music....Kristofferson's first to be recorded is "The Viet Nam Blues", a talking single done by Jack Sanders on Dot Records. It is in the patriotic vein, supports the US position in Viet Nam". (1) The narrator, a soldier on leave in Washington D.C., came across a "strange looking bunch" of protesters, gathering signatures to send a "telegram of sympathy...to Ho Chi Minh". This caused the veteran to feel "down right sick", as they seemed more concerned with the suffering of the Vietnamese than the American soldiers and their families. In the final section, the soldier came across a sign which said "we won't fight". So the soldier explained that they were fighting so that those back in the US could enjoy their freedoms, and not "wake up dead". This made the soldier look "kinda crazy, just another warmonger". In the…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer