Vietnam War Song Woodstock

1.The message of the song is a strong protest against the Vietnam War distinguishing between the fortunate sons, who were wealthy and did not have to serve in the war and the unfortunate sons, who were poor and paid the price.

2. Is the intent of this song to promote or protest the Vietnam War? Why?

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

In “Gimme Shelter”, The Rolling Stones sing, “see the fire is sweeping our very street today”, this shows the frenzy and the extent of war protests in the late sixties. Prior to 1965, opposition to the Vietnam War was primarily a leftist view but due to efforts by returning vetrans and media publications a broad majority of Americans felt indifferent towards involvement in the war. High profile figures such as Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Fonda, Muhhamed Ali, and John Lennon had all been outspoken opponents of the war. American religious groups took a pascifist view and called for peace as soon as possible. In 1968 there were 221 protests at 101 universities as over 16,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam during that year and public awareness of atrocities committed by the United States in Vietnam was heightened. By the end of the 1960’s protesting had become violent as indicated by the line in “Gimme Shelter”, “gimme shelter or i'm going to fade away” which speaks to the feeling of danger and closeness to the war in citizen’s daily lives and the need for escapement. A faction of the Students for a Democratic Society arose with a more militant stance and advocated for the destruction of governemnt property and war materials they were known as the Weather Underground or the Weathermen. The Weathermen were notorious for bombing campaigns in which they would target banks and

War needed to end in peace and not deaths. The song I picked out for this assignment was "March to the Witch's Castle" by Funkadelic. This songs relates to the return of the Vietnam soldiers. This song was written for the soldiers that faced many troubles in the war. It explains their history during the war. I believe this song as a significance to the soldiers of Vietnam.

Most of the songs written for or about the Vietnam Conflict focused mainly on the negatives of the war, such as the draft and the lost lives of fathers, brothers and husbands. These musicians also focused on the hardships everyone in the United States had to face. They put a negative light on the Conflict as a whole and failed to recognize the immense bravery, strength and courage the soldiers displayed by fighting. But, in The Ballad of the Green Berets it focuses not only what is happening during this time period in the United States, it also talks about the conflict from a soldier’s perspective. This allows the song to explain how the Conflict was an opportunity to show that against all odds, the Green Berets and all the soldiers never stopped

Throughout all the anti-war protests and marches during the Vietnam War, it is interesting to note the changes in the music of that time. From the beginning of the war, where support and loyalty from Americans was present in songs, to the end of the war, where anger and distrust was evident in musical lyrics, American’s opinion changed about the war. This change in opinion was easily recognized by the altering of musical lyrics about the war when Americans grew tired of the constant sending of U.S. troops to Vietnam. The growing dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War led to increasing levels of anger and hostility in the popular music of the time.

In 1971, Marvin Gaye, a renowned Motown artist, published a concept album that would become a huge hit for both critics and casual listeners throughout the US. Written towards the end of the Vietnam War, What’s Going On would touch on subjects including war protests, unification of the American people, and the poor treatment of veterans. Gaye’s brother served in Vietnam, and much of this album shows the brother’s thoughts and feelings when he returns. Throughout his album, Marvin Gaye uses his own experiences to give us a look at why he and many others had a dissatisfaction with society and the government during the Vietnam War era in the United States.

The soldiers that were in Vietnam were subject to horrors that they should not have because it was useless and their time in Vietnam turned to communism anyway. In the book Fallen Angels the soldiers in it had to

In the Vietnam songs, all of the songs were made as protest songs against war. These songs sent a message that war is not something that we as humans should be doing and that we shouldn't have to solve our problems by killing each other. The American society felt the same way. Why are we doing this? This is not what we should be doing as humans, and this was partly why the American people didn't really welcome veterans back from war. They thought that what they were doing was "wrong" and it's not really solving anything, it's only taking lives. In the first song, "War" by Edwin Starr, there is a very clear message that war is good for nothing. Life is to short to spend fighting in wars. War is nothing but a heart-breaker and it shatters young

Throughout time, music has been an influential part of society. As a form of entertainment and expression, its impact has always been felt both economically and emotionally. During the Vietnam war, music evolved into more a form of expression rather than pure entertainment. Emotionally charged songs became a method to oppose the war, and vent frustrations. While many songs opposed the war, numerous others focused on peace and happiness. They provided a positive perspective in an otherwise depressing time. Along with incorporating passion into music, cultural diversity increased in music greatly. Black artists became progressively more popular and accepted in the musical scene. This respect

The Vietnam war was a major event to America because it had major conflicts with personal opinions of the people of 1960’s. In this era, plenty of people were rethinking on why they were fighting in a war that they did not need to be fighting. and joined the anti-war movement. This can explicitly be seen from the type of music that people were listening to at the time. The song that I am going to be analyzing is “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones. This song resonated with the persona of the people for multiple reasons because it was a song that was about losing a loved one and dealing with the sadness.

The music produced in the 1960s was protesting against the Vietnam War, the government, social norms, the older generation, civil rights, women’s movement, etc. The music protested issues that were happening in the United States as well as around the world in other countries like the war that America was involved with in Vietnam. There were numerous songs that came out of the 1960s that protested against the Vietnam War. Some antiwar protest songs of the 60s are “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire, “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, and “War” by Edwin Starr. The lyrics of “Eve of Destruction” shows the protest against America’s involvement in the war with “You’re old enough to kill but no for votin’/You don’t believe in war but whats that gun you’re totin’” (McGuire). Those fighting in the war were too young to vote for their country, but they weren’t too young to kill for their country. The soldiers also didn’t believe in the cause of the war, but they still fought in the war, as they had no choice because of the draft. Through music the younger generation also

Although this song was written about Vietnam at the time, later it can be interpreted to

During the Vietnam War singer song writer Bod Dylan came out with a song concerning the war and its efforts. This hit single was titled “Blowing in the Wind” and talked about how so many lives are lost for basically a pointless reason. The base philosophy of this song is that thousands of people are dying for no reason, fighting for a cause that doesn’t concern this society. The song states this, “how many deaths will it take till he knows too many people have died…,” this embodies the whole idea of the song. This basically says that the war is wasting lives and that it needs to stop so no more people have to die. Bob Dylan basically summed up all the Vietnam protests with this song.