Vietnam

Annotation — Rap / Hip Hop Songs

Obscure French Hip Hop group, which released the song "Vietnam" (Source # 7243 8477182 9). It's one of the few songs on here to focus on the battle zone, narrated from a combat perspective: "I camp in the woods, blood and sweat, it's my daily life, people dying in fear all around me". It noted the use of napalm: "I was dropping the napalm, I saw that the Cong were not weaklings" - 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 1973.123 The song criticised politicians for sending people to war: "by what right do you condemn me to die in Vietnam, behind your office you're clean". Also note the reference to three Vietnam War films, Apocalypse Now, First Blood (Rambo), and Hamburger Hill: "we force you to crawl on a Hamburger Hill, you're ready for the Apocalypse Now... you don't have the balls of Rambo", and thus another example of the major cultural impact of Vietnam War films and its influence on music.Sources1Napalm: An American Biography (Robert M. Neer, 2013)↩2Times Higher Education: Napalm an american biography by robert m neer↩3Napalm, An American Biography (book website)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — European Songs

Vietnam (Big Red) French hip-hop. Anti-war. Post-war. Napalm. Reference to Vietnam films - Apocalypse Now, Rambo.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Tell me I’m hallucinating / That you’re joking, just teasing me / By what right do you condemn me to die in Vietnam? / You stay clean behind your desk / Expecting me to commit murder for you / No, I don’t want to be a soldier / You know, something’s not right for me / There’s something I just don’t get / My gang is my family, and that’s why I work / Pack up your marbles; I’m not playing soldier for you / It’s impossible for me to take your orders, man / I don’t share your motivations or your opinions / We don’t have the same values; we aren’t the same kind of soldiers / You live in a delusion and pretend to believe it / You’ve got a lavish home, while I’m camping in the woods / Blood and sweat—that’s my daily reality / People dying in terror all around me / I fight with rage in my heart, not even knowing why / For 'His Highness,' his 'greatness,' or some bastard like that? / You die in a prison cell or out there on the front lines / In the name of the 'fatherland,' man—you die in combat / Tell me I’m hallucinating / That you’re joking, just teasing me / By what right do you condemn me to die in Vietnam? / You stay clean behind your desk / Expecting me to commit murder for you / No, I don’t want to be a soldier / Women and children consumed by flames Yes, Commander, I dropped the napalm / I learned that the 'Cong' were no pushovers / When I came back from over there, I’d left my soul behind / Dropping bombs against—what, darts? / There’s a hell of a difference in the…

About the artist

Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho

Themes

Napalm · Anti-Government · Rambo · Apocalypse Now · Film · City & Community Violence · Hamburger Hill · Violence Metaphor · VC

In collections

European Songs · Rap / Hip Hop Songs