Vietnam Blues

Annotation

Champion Jack Dupree - born William Thomas Dupree (c.1910-1992) in New Orleans, he played blues piano in the boogie-woogie style, mainly based in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in London and worked in Europe through most of the 1960s. He sung about drugs, drink, and jail, as well as writing many political songs about US presidents (such as FDR, Truman and Kennedy) and the Civil Rights movement (including a composition about Martin Luther King). He recorded this album at Morgan Sound Studios, Willesden, Northwest London in 1971, and released in the UK in 1972 for Sonet (# SNTF 626). Released in the US in 1974 (GNP Crescendo Records # GNPS 10013).1 The 2004 CD reissue ... (Verve Records) included an alternative take of the Vietnam song discussed below. The recordings featured Peter Curtley (guitar); Paul Rowan (harmonica); Hughie Flint (drums). The song "Vietnam Blues" took an anti-war position. Dupree felt sympathy for "the people over in Vietnam" who suffered a "lot of pain". He wanted the US government to "leave those poor people alone" and to "pull out and go home". He believed that the war would "never end" and that the Vietnamese had a lot of friends: "the Chinese...the North Koreans, the Russians...and they got me too". Dupress also sung about the pain felt by the mothers of US soldiers. It included a Civil Rights message, with a small line on the treatment of African-Americans in the US, saying that the Vietnamese had a problem "just like a got at home" - this coming from a man who left the US to live in Europe partly because of these issues. The alternative version of the song, recorded during the same session as above, but not released until the 2004 CD re-issue, had some different interesting lyrics. Dupree called US action in Vietnam a "low down dirty shame" and that there "ain't no justice". He warned the government that "you can't win every war". Dupree also addressed the draft, saying that people "got no chance", and would have to "dig" their "own grave". He sung that "I'm so glad I was too old" to be drafted! Sources1Legacy of the Blues, Vol 3 (Champion Jack Dupree)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Draft Songs

Champion Jack Dupree - born William Thomas Dupree (c.1910-1992) in New Orleans, he played blues piano in the boogie-woogie style, mainly based in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in London and worked in Europe through most of the 1960s. He sung about drugs, drink, and jail, as well as writing many political songs about US presidents (such as FDR, Truman and Kennedy) and the civil right movement (including a composition about Martin Luther King). He recorded this album at Morgan Sound Studios, Willesden, Northwest London in 1971, and released in the UK in 1972 for Sonet (# SNTF 626). Released in the US in 1974 (GNP Crescendo Records # GNPS 10013).1 The 2004 CD reissue ... (Verve Records) included an alternative take of the Vietnam song discussed below. The recordings featured Peter Curtley (guitar); Paul Rowan (harmonica); Hughie Flint (drums). The song "Vietnam Blues" took an anti-war position. Dupree felt sympathy for "the people over in Vietnam" who suffered a "lot of pain". He wanted the US government to "leave those poor people alone" and to "pull out and go home". He believed that the war would "never end" and that the Vietnamese had a lot of friends: "the Chinese...the North Koreans, the Russians...and they got me too". Dupress also sung about the pain felt by the mothers of US soldiers. It included a small line on the treatment of African-Americans in the US, saying that the Vietnamese had a problem "just like a got at home" - this coming from a man who left the US to live in Europe partly because of these issues.The alternative version of the song, recorded during the same session as above, but not released until the 2004 CD re-issue, had some different interesting lyrics. Dupree called US action in Vietnam a "low down dirty shame" and that there "ain't no justice". He warned the government that "you can't win every war". Dupree also addressed the draft, saying that people "got no chance", and would have to "dig" their "own grave". He sung that "I'm so glad I was too old" to be drafted! Sources1Legacy of the Blues, Vol 3 (Champion Jack Dupree)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Well, I feel so sorry for the people over in Vietnam / It's a whole lot of pain / Uncle Sam don't understand / Why don't you leave Vietnam? / Leave those poor poor people alone / They got a hell of a problem just like I got at home / Well I know a mother be glad to see her son come home / Yes Uncle Sam pack up pull out, and go home / The war in Vietnam, there's one war that will never end / The Vietnam people, they got a whole lot of friends / Yeah they got the Japanese, they got the Chinese... / The North Koreans, the Russians, the Africans too / And they got me too, when the lights come on all over the world again, well the people in Vietnam will have a whole lot of friends again I feel so sorry for the people in Vietnam / The way they be treated, is a low down dirty shame... / What could we do when we got to go / We got no chance, say we don't want to go / When you got to go dig your own grave... / Ain't no justice at all, they get killed... / Innocent woman and children too, they kill them down just like you and me / We don't know why so much murder always on the mind / I don't see why Uncle Sam don't go home... / I'm so glad I was too old, too old... / Maybe one day Uncle Sam will understand that you can't win every war, even in Vietnam

About the artist

American blues pianist, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (c. 1908-10); died 21 January 1992 in Hanover, Germany. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War · Civil Rights

In collections

Blues songs · Civil Rights Songs · Draft Songs · European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]