Cold Knuckle Sandwich
1989 · Self-released None · Madison, Wisconsin
- Artist
- Jim Walktendonk
- Title
- Cold Knuckle Sandwich
- Release
- Red White and Blind
- Year
- 1989
- Label
- Self-released # None
- Format
- Cassette · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — US Military & Veteran Songs
Jim Walktendonk (aka James) comes from Appleton, Wisconsin, USA, and is currentl based in Gillingham, Wisconsin, USA. He served in Vietnam, 1970-71, with 212th and 595th Sentry Dog Companies, 89th Military Police Battalion. He took up folk singing back in the US. From 2002 he focused on painting, due to the negative effects of Agent Orange making it difficult to play guitar.12 He released several albums of Vietnam War songs, as well as the book "Song for America", featuring a collection of anti-war / protest songs.3 He is a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW), on ongoing, non-profit anti-war group, taking particular interest in Agent Orange, Veterans Rights, and Pesticide Reform.45 His artwork featured in an exhibition at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, called "A Vision from Another Sky: The Paintings of Vietnam Veteran Jim Walktendonk".3 This 1989 cassette album featured two songs related to the memorial wall in D.C. The song "Cold Knuckle Sandwich", a slang term for a punch in the mouth, focused on a veteran visiting the memorial, recalling that he was a young man in 1968. It is particularly interesting to note the reference to contemporary conflicts, taking an anti-war perspective: "Kuwait, Beruit, and El Savador...what the hell has it all been for?"The next song, "Just the Dream of Them All Alive", came in at nearly 7-minutes long, told the story of a dream, in which the songwriter was at the wall, and the soldier's written there stepped out and started dancing to the music. The music provided comfort to both the living and the dead. The songwriter told the dead soldiers that "I won't let the world forget".Sources1ReverbNation↩2wisvetsmuseum.pastperfectonline.com↩3collections.museumca.org↩4broadjam.com↩5Wikipedia: Vietnam Veterans Against the War↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Veterans Memorial Wall Songs
Jim Walktendonk (aka James) comes from Appleton, Wisconsin, USA, and is currentl based in Gillingham, Wisconsin, USA. He served in Vietnam, 1970-71, with 212th and 595th Sentry Dog Companies, 89th Military Police Battalion. He took up folk singing back in the US. From 2002 he focused on painting, due to the negative effects of Agent Orange making it difficult to play guitar.12 He released several albums of Vietnam War songs, as well as the book "Song for America", featuring a collection of anti-war / protest songs.3 He is a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW), on ongoing, non-profit anti-war group, taking particular interest in Agent Orange, Veterans Rights, and Pesticide Reform.45 His artwork featured in an exhibition at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, called "A Vision from Another Sky: The Paintings of Vietnam Veteran Jim Walktendonk".3 This 1989 cassette album featured two songs related to the memorial wall in D.C. The song "Cold Knuckle Sandwich", a slang term for a punch in the mouth, focused on a veteran visiting the memorial, recalling that he was a young man in 1968. It is particularly interesting to note the reference to contemporary conflicts, taking an anti-war perspective: "Kuwait, Beruit, and El Savador...what the hell has it all been for?" The next song, "Just the Dream of Them All Alive", came in at nearly 7-minutes long, told the story of a dream, in which the songwriter was at the wall, and the soldier's written there stepped out and started dancing to the music. The music provided comfort to both the living and the dead. The songwriter told the dead soldiers that "I won't let the world forget". Sources1ReverbNation↩2wisvetsmuseum.pastperfectonline.com↩3collections.museumca.org↩4broadjam.com↩5Wikipedia: Vietnam Veterans Against the War↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: "Well we built us up a monument, put it ten feet into the ground / It's a black cold marble wall, set into the deep... / Inscribed on the wall to see it is truly a wonder to me / Hits me like a cold knuckle sandwich / If you came home like me on a freedom bird / Heading back from the war / You went your way, and I went mine / And we wished and wondered / We died and did time / We're American survivors, and we're all in a line... / Now that we've built up our monument / Told America of our needs, it's such a simple.. / What we are / Now deal with the wounds that we carried so far / Help us deal our horrible stars... / I was a young man back in '68 / Hadn't touched face of war / Felt real hate, I stood posed and I was at deaths door / But Kuwait, Beruit, and El Savador, it's all a symptom that we can't ignore / But what the hell has it all been for / No we don't need a...cold knuckle..."
Notes
Self-released cassette, recorded at Randy's Recording, Cottage Grove, Wisconsin; contact Boonie Tunes, P.O. Box 3472, Madison, Wisconsin. Other Vietnam tracks: The Agent Orange Song, The Claymore Polka, Luang Pro Bang.
About the artist
Jim Walktendonk is a Vietnam War veteran who served as a dog handler and turned to music after returning home, performing on Vietnam veteran recognition programmes for PBS and HBO. When Agent Orange exposure limited his guitar playing in the 1990s he took up painting, and his work was exhibited at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. [Wisconsin Veterans Museum]