Vietnam Blues
1967 · Custom Fidelity CFS-1675 · California, California
- Artist
- Steve Mann
- Title
- Vietnam Blues
- Release
- Straight Life
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- Custom Fidelity # CFS-1675
- Language
- English
- Country
- California, California, USA
- Songwriter
- Steve Mann
- Genre
- Blues · Acoustic Blues · Country Blues
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Steve Mann, born on 2 May 1943 in California, USA, he died on 9 September 2009 in San Pablo, California, USA. In 1965 he was a member of the experimental rock group The Mothers of Invention, playing guitar and harmonica. On this album featured the song "Vietnam Blues" (Custom Fidelity Records # CFS-1675) - he has the writing credit but it contains some familiar lines from other songs on this list, such as the first line: "Uncle Sam ain't no woman, but he sure can take your man", as well as "I got my questionnaire, they're gonna lead me off to war". The narrator requests upon his death to "write hero on my grave". Also of note is a couple references to the number of troops in Vietnam, firstly saying "they got 300,000 in the service", and then later "they got 400,000....in some place I read about called Vietnam".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Well Uncle Sam ain't no woman, but he sure can take your man... / Well they got 300,000 in the service, doing something they don't understand / I got my questionnaire, they're gonna lead me off to war... / When I'm dead an gone baby, you can write hero on my grave... / Because if I have to go down fighting, I just want to be a H-E-R-Hero is all I crave / Uncle Sam ain't no woman, but he sure can take your man... / Well they got 400,000 in the service, in some place I read about called Vietnam
About the artist
Born San Fernando Valley, California, USA (2 May 1943). Died San Pablo, California, USA (9 September 2009).