Vietnam Moratorium

Annotation

The calypso song "Vietnam Moratorium" (Hilary # LB-406) by Lord Brynne - born Kade Simon, in Erin, Trinidad and Tobago, in 19371 This song dealt with the mass demonstration called the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam (15 October 1969 and 15 November 1969, which put much pressure on the Richard Nixon administration. This is also looked at in the song "Moratorium (Bring Our Brother Home)" by Buffy Sainte-Marie, and the track "In Our Time" by Andrea Marcovicci. The lyrics, narrated in the first person, of somebody at the demonstration, took an anti-war position, calling on Uncle Sam to end the "useless war in Vietnam" and to stop "the murders...killing in Vietnam".Sources1bestoftrinidad.com↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music

The calypso song "Vietnam Moratorium" (Hilary # LB-406) by Lord Brynne - born Kade Simon, in Erin, Trinidad and Tobago, in 19371 This song dealt with the mass demonstration called the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam (15 October 1969 and 15 November 1969, which put much pressure on the Richard Nixon administration. This is also looked at in the song "Moratorium (Bring Our Brother Home)" by Buffy Sainte-Marie, and the track "In Our Time" by Andrea Marcovicci. The lyrics, narrated in the first person, of somebody at the demonstration, took an anti-war position, calling on Uncle Sam to end the "useless war in Vietnam" and to stop "the murders...killing in Vietnam". Sources1bestoftrinidad.com↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: October 15 in the year 1969 / I was standing on Madison Avenue/ Several thousand people past marching with candles in hands / Shouting a mournful melody too / Then all the woman were dressed up in black and white / Then I saw the tears coming down their cheeks / You know these people were within their constitution rights / Peace and love, peace and love / They're trying to save, they were singing / Uncle Sam, and this useless war in Vietnam / Tell us what you're fighting for / We want you to bring back the men from Vietnam / We said, to have some consideration / Uncle Sam, get the men out of Vietnam / We want you to end the murders in Vietnam, we said to stop the killing in Vietnam

Notes

Hilary LB-406B, Side 2, white label with a multicoloured dot border; "Vietnam Moratorium", Lord Brynner. No writer or time is printed. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Lord Brynner (Kade Simon, born about 1937 in Erin, southern Trinidad; died 1985) was a Trinidadian calypsonian who took his sobriquet and shaved head from the actor Yul Brynner. He won the Trinidad and Tobago Independence Calypso Contest in August 1962 at the age of twenty-five, beating a field that included the Mighty Sparrow, and went on to score ska hits in Jamaica in the mid-1960s, recording some fifty seven-inch singles and thirteen LPs before dying young, destitute and in obscurity. "Vietnam Moratorium" appears among his recordings in the discography published by the Trinidad Guardian.…

Themes

Anti-War · VC · Demonstration

In collections

Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]