This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera cellphone (which I bought in 2004).
This blog is one of the transitions for the new year. I've started it This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera cellphone (which I bought in 2004).
This blog is one This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004
3:02 PM Tuesday, February 6, 2007
[The Songs of War, Part 3.]
How many of you Coffeeblog fans out there knew that Claude "Curly" Putman, Jr. wrote the greatest war song of the Vietnam War era? Yes, this is the third in the Coffeeblog series on the greatest songs of America's wars, which began with "Hadji Girl" and followed with "Lili Marlene." What makes the Vietnam war special in this series, is that I was there. I heard the songs. And I've picked the greatest war song of that era, though I suppose there are other candidates. (John Lennon's "Imagine?" it's not a war song, it's a peace song.)
The old home town looks the same as I step down from the train
and there to meet me is my Mama and Papa
Down the road I look and there runs Mary, hair of gold and lips like cherries
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Those were the lyrics penned by Curly Putman back in 1965, and sung by Tom Jones in the most popular recorded version. But those were not the words usually sung by the US draftees in Vietnam. Their version was "It's good to smoke the green, green grass of home"? Is "grass" still a nickname for marijuana? It sure was then, and it sure was smoked. (I'm not saying that I smoked it, of course, and, in fact, the subject of what I have smoked and when, if ever, is not on the table.)
What made this a great war song? And what makes it (in my opinion) the greatest Vietnam war song? The focus of the song is not hanging Jeff Davis (or Abe Lincoln) from a sour apple tree, or crushing the enemy. It is about getting out and going home. Nothing in there about victory. And that was the specific goal of the Vietnam war, as planned and implemented by the US government. The US goal of the war was to keep Vietnam divided between the Communist part and the liberal Western part, rather than reuniting under the Communists, according to the doctrines of "peaceful co-existence and "detente", and based on the Cold War examples of Germany and Korea. (Am I wrong about that? Did I misunderstand?) It's no wonder, then, that surviving long enough to get home, and getting stoned on the cheap, easily available Vietnamese weed was uppermost in the thoughts of most of those civilians "called up to serve their country." In my view it all boils down to the difference in the way that politicians and warriors look at victory: For politicians, there will always be an opposition, loyal or otherwise, and victory means an electoral majority, no matter how small. For warriors, it means destroying the enemy. Or at least, that's what it used to mean. Am I glad that the American military is, and always has been ruled by civilian politicians? Hell, yes. But am I in favor of "wars" whose primary motivation (for the troops) is to get stoned until you can go home? Hell, no.
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