Vietnamerica
1981 · Liberty BP 405 · Guildford, UK: England
- Artist
- The Stranglers
- Title
- Vietnamerica
- Release
- Let Me Introduce You to the Family / Vietnamerica
- Year
- 1981
- Label
- Liberty # BP 405
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Guildford, UK: England
- Songwriter
- Brian John Duffy, David Greenfield, Hugh Alan Cornwell, Jean Jacques Burnel
- Genre
- Rock · New Wave · Punk Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
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 #…
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 #…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Formed 11 September 1974, Guildford, Surrey, UK