The Vietnam War would come to an end in 1975, but in the early 70s, there were still plenty of songs that had something to say about the conflict. Here are some songs from 1971 that are connected to the Vietnam War.
“Bring The Boys Back Home” by Freda Payne
Freda Payne’s “Bring The Boys Back Home” delivered a powerful sentiment about the war at a time when many US soldiers were coming back in body bags. Payne pleads with the listener: “Bring the boys back home, and bring them back alive.”
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Can’t you see them marching ‘cross the sky
All the soldiers that have died
Trying to get home
Can’t you see them
Trying to get home
They’re trying to get home
They’re trying to get home.
“Sam Stone” by John Prine
While many songwriters during this time wrote songs of protest about the Vietnam War, John Prine aimed to tell the story of Sam Stone, an ex-soldier who dies not from war, but from a morphine addiction. It doesn’t say that Stone is a Vietnam veteran in the song, but this has been assumed by many listeners. Prine even compared “Sam Stone” to many Vietnam anthems of the day.
“…At that time, all the other Vietnam songs were basic protest songs, made up to slap each other on the back like ‘Yeah, this is the right cause,’” he told Performing Songwriter. “I don’t remember any other songs that talked about the soldiers at all.”
After the Civil War, morphine addiction ran rampant among soldiers, and with Vietnam, heroin had a similar impact. This song appears on John Prine’s self-titled debut album.
“What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye
“What’s Going On” is the opening song of Gaye’s album of the same name. The whole project follows a Vietnam veteran as he returns to the US. He witnesses a version of America that is different than the one he left. When writing this song, Gaye was inspired lyrically by the experience of his brother Frankie, who served in the Vietnam War.
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some loving here today, yeah.
Photo by: Tom Hill/Getty Images
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