Vietnamerica

Annotation

The Stranglers formed in Guildford, Surrey, UK in 1974, a popular new wave / punk rock band, scoring over 23 UK top 40 singles. The four piece, led by Hugh Cornwell (vocals, guitar), included J.J. Burnel (bass, vocals), Jet Black (drums), and Dave Greenfield (keyboards, vocals) up to 1990, when a few personnel changes took place. The song "Vietnamerica" (Liberty Records # BP 405) took an anti-war approach, criticising American involvement in Vietnam and its negative impact on the Vietnamese: "cry in ancient lands...burnt their hands...treasures captured, pleasures enraptured". Hugh Cornwell spoke about the song in an interview with Jim Drury, for the book "The Stranglers: Song by Song" (2010): "this was quite Doorsy...Vietnamerica was a nice play on words. I'd just seen Apocalypse Now, which was a very colourful film. The lyrics came very quickly. There was a lot of rape of pillage in Vietnam, and the Americans got their fingers burned".1 Thus, an early example of the influence of Hollywood Vietnam War films on the portrayal of the war. The song did not originally feature on an album, only as the b-side to this single. It also featured on the US compilation IV (I.R.S. Records # SP 70011) released in September 1980, just prior to this single. The single reached # 42 in the UK charts.2Sources1The Stranglers: Song by Song (Hugh Cornwell, 2011)↩2British Hit Singles & Albums (Guinness World Records, 2005)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Punk Songs

The Stranglers formed in Guildford, Surrey, UK in 1974, a popular New Wave / Post-Punk band, scoring over 23 UK top 40 singles. The four piece, led by Hugh Cornwell (vocals, guitar), included J.J. Burnel (bass, vocals), Jet Black (drums), and Dave Greenfield (keyboards, vocals) up to 1990, when a few personnel changes took place. The song "Vietnamerica" (Liberty Records # BP 405) took an anti-war approach, criticising American involvement in Vietnam and its negative impact on the Vietnamese: "cry in ancient lands...burnt their hands...treasures captured, pleasures enraptured". Hugh Cornwell spoke about the song in an interview with Jim Drury, for the book "The Stranglers: Song by Song" (2010): "this was quite Doorsy...Vietnamerica was a nice play on words. I'd just seen Apocalypse Now, which was a very colourful film. The lyrics came very quickly. There was a lot of rape of pillage in Vietnam, and the Americans got their fingers burned".1 Thus, an early example of the influence of Hollywood Vietnam War films on the portrayal of the war. The song did not originally feature on an album, only as the b-side to this single. It also featured on the US compilation IV (I.R.S. Records # SP 70011) released in September 1980, just prior to this single. The single reached # 42 in the UK charts.2 Sources1The Stranglers: Song by Song (Hugh Cornwell, 2011)↩2British Hit Singles & Albums (Guinness World Records, 2005)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: It's over linger, on nightmares of the waste / The pagan values, a bloodsweet crimson taste / Treasures captured, pleasures enraptured / Lose their friendship, Vietnamerica.... / The native plaintive, cry in ancient lands / Omnipotent, gods have burnt their hands / Lightning providers fatal dividers / Spread heads inside us, Vietnamerica... / So friends, oh, friends, paint the mother's face / Liars conspire, to hide within God's grace / Treasures captured, pleasures enraptured / Lose their friendship, Vietnamerica

Notes

Liberty BP 405 (BP 405B), Side B, 45 RPM; "Vietnamerica" (The Stranglers), Albion Music Ltd.; ℗ 1981 Liberty United Records (UK) Ltd.; arranged and produced by The Stranglers, engineer Steve Churchyard, mixed by Tony Visconti; manufactured in the UK by EMI Records Ltd. Picture sleeve front: old black-and-white photograph of a family seated at a banquet table, on a background of grey tommy-guns, with "Let Me Introduce You to the Family". Back: both titles, the "La Folie" Tour dates for November (Norwich UEA to Liverpool Royal Court Theatre) and the Stranglers Information Service, Shepperton Studio Centre, Middlesex. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Formed 11 September 1974, Guildford, Surrey, UK

Themes

Anti-War

In collections

European Songs · Punk Songs