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Vietnam & Protest Soul


Ion T

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Hi all,

A pal of mine is doing a PHD on the role of black music in the protest movement.

Tony Mason - Take Good Care and Emanuel Laskey - Peace Loving Man immediately come to mind but I know there are lots of other 'nam references.

Your help would be much appreciated!

All best

Ion

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Hi all,

A pal of mine is doing a PHD on the role of black music in the protest movement.

Tony Mason - Take Good Care and Emanuel Laskey - Peace Loving Man immediately come to mind but I know there are lots of other 'nam references.

Your help would be much appreciated!

All best

Ion

Loads of em ' Ion , how about Our Day Is Here , by JP Robinson , or Just Remember Me - Creations on Globe ? Best,Eddie

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Hi Ion, there's plenty, and probably the only upside to the Vietnam war was a prolific output of black American protest themed music...here's few obvious ones that spring to mind.............

Edwin Starr - War....................of course

Emanuel Laskey - Letter From Vietnam

Zerben Hicks & Dynamics - Lights Out

Larry Sanders Where Did Peace Go

Free Angela Davis LP on Sound of Soul

I'll have dig through and let you have some more....thumbsup.gif

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Ion, as a previous reply mentioned, Zerben Hicks & Dynamics was issued with a picture sleeve with GI's on it, I have scans of this and the Free Angela LP, which was produced to raise funds to pay for legal help in freeing Angela (forget her 2nd name) from prison due to activity with the Black Panther movement.

Lee Bates - Why don't you write - Instant makes reference to "this war so wrong".

If memory serves I have a book by Robert Preuter(?) that may also touch on Vietnam and black American movement effect on Chicago Soul.

Happy to supply scans and copies of pages given contact details.

As I am sure you'll find out there will be many more, if some come to mind I'll let you know.

Best, Lee

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A while back there was a whole programme on Radio 4 dedicated to this very subject including interviews with big named artists of the time. It discussed the interference of the US Government and how they banned certain releases as they felt it was not in the interest of the war effort.

I'm sure this must be archived. I think it was early this year and it was on a weekday around 12.00am. It might have been in more than one part.

Hope that is of use. Regards, Steve.

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Guest SoulRenaissance

Hi all,

A pal of mine is doing a PHD on the role of black music in the protest movement.

Tony Mason - Take Good Care and Emanuel Laskey - Peace Loving Man immediately come to mind but I know there are lots of other 'nam references.

Your help would be much appreciated!

All best

Ion

There's another Kent 'nam CD "Does anybody know i'm here"? Vietnam through the eyes of black America 1962-1972 (CDKEND 245).

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Guest MBarrett

Ion

It wasn't explicitly anti-Vietnam but your mate should at least bear in mind the Wattstax musical festival of 1972.

Only a one-day affair - but dubbed by some the "black Woodstock."

Al Bell of Stax on the right in the picture below.

You couldn't have an event like this in 1972 without there being an undertone of anti-Vietnam protest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattstax

gallery_6836_1066_100533.jpg

MB

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Guest veep1296

Hi all,

A pal of mine is doing a PHD on the role of black music in the protest movement.

Tony Mason - Take Good Care and Emanuel Laskey - Peace Loving Man immediately come to mind but I know there are lots of other 'nam references.

Your help would be much appreciated!

All best

Ion

I have a FB friend who is a DJ & collector in Boston...he has a collection of "war songs" & posted up lots of label scans a while back on FB.

I could connect the two......let me know if i can be of help..

Regards

David Ferguson

My favourite is Mike Williams Lonely Soldier on Atlantic & UK Red Atlantic...

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Guest smigger

Do this for me - The Lovers on Phillips)

Lyrics are about a lad who's going back to the States and his mate askes him to go and see his bird and what he shouls tell her.

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Not music, but spoken word LPs...

Guess Who's Coming Home - Black Fighting Men In Vietnam Narrated by Wallace Terry [1972] on the Motown subsidary label "Black Forum"

Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam - Martin Luther King JR [1970] also on Black Forum

Edited by pikeys dog
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Hey Ion

Its a great subject, i foccused quite a chunk of my degree on a similar subject and it was so much fun.

Not so much on the music front, but there is a touring exhibition of African American propoganda posters inspired (so i understand) by George Jacksons 'Soledad Brother' letters, it has just finished in Manchester Uni but i dont know where next.

Also on Itunes there is a free weekly download which comes from the library of National Congress called the 'Black Media Archive'. Ive got about 200 hours of really fantastic primary stuff from there, including rare Interviews with prominant Black militants, including musicians, there is some really important stuff on offer there for free. Hope this can help.

Good luck next week

M

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This one's a fantastic record that has great vocals and is very dancable (if that matters) but has a clear peace message whether it's explicitly a vietnam song I'm not too sure.

"Got to learn to love...

And if they could say they're willing,

To stop all this killing,

Let everyone learn to love,

Gotta have a love..."

VANGUARDS - GOTTA HAVE LOVE - LAMP -

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I guess the most well known and popular protest tune for the late 70's is The Philadelphia All-Stars - Let's Clean Up The Ghetto...though the album itself is a great slab of social commentary soul, with some great tracks.........

Intruders - Save The Children

Teddy Pendegrass - Now Is The Time To Do It

Other social commentary / protest tunes from the 70's....

Walter Heath - You Know You're Wrong Don't You Brother - Buddah

Johns Brothers - Try To Walk A Mile - RCA

Shirley Wahls - Remember Martin Luther King - Blue Candle

Moody Scott - We Gotta Save It - Seventy 7

Moddy Scott - (We Gotta) Bust Out Of The Ghetto - Sound Stage 7

Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto - Atco

Betty Jean Plummer - How Can We Save It - Bell

Eddie Kendrick - My People...Hold On

Syl Johnson - Concrete Reservation - Twinight

Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues - Tamla

Marvin Gayes - What's Going On - Tamla

Timmy Thomas - Why Can't We Live Together - Glades

Chi-Lites (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People -Brunswick

Lost Generation - This Is The Lost Generation - Brunswick

Impressions - Choice Of Colors - Curtom

James Brown didn't hold back on social commentary, and a few of his 70's albums hold some great tracks..

King Heroin - Polydor

People Wake Up And Live - Polydor

So many great social commentry tracks form Curtis Mayfield too...

Ghetto Child - Curtom

Miss Black America - Curtom

The Other Side Of Town - Curtom

We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue - Curtom

Mighty, Mighty - Curtom

Just about every Gil Scott Heron track....

thumbsup.gif

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i could probably do at least two more full show of different vietnam songs but the quality would suffer or they would be more deep-soul focused which is less in the theme of my show.

as for socially conscious songs, i do one every mlk day, you could do hundreds of hours of songs of those, it's a genre in of itself, i don't see a point listing them unless it's a thread listing maybe the most "important" ones like curtis mayfield's "move on up", marvin gaye's "what's going on", isley brothers "fight the power", etc.

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Do this for me - The Lovers on Phillips)

Lyrics are about a lad who's going back to the States and his mate askes him to go and see his bird and what he shouls tell her.

Original of that by The Emotions on Vardan.

"Don't forget that i love you" - Intentions on Phillips.

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The Bootleggers"Don't count on tomorrow"on discovery has...don't draft me .. etched in the run out groove.

Best

Edwin

ive a 45 somewhere called bring my buddies back, cant remember who the artist is (or group)sure its the same backing track as phillip mitchell's im gonna build california all over the world ..........i think:innocent:

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ive a 45 somewhere called bring my buddies back, cant remember who the artist is (or group)sure its the same backing track as phillip mitchell's im gonna build california all over the world ..........i think:innocent:

I think it's the change of pace

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One 45 that never gets a mention on 'Vietnam/Protest' related threads is the great Pam Sawyer song, produced by Frank Wilson, recorded by the Supremes in 1970, "Bill, When Are You Coming Back".

It's on the album "Right On!" and first became aware of it in 1970 as its on the flipside to "Up The Ladder To The Roof".

Always loved it!

good.gif

Sean

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One 45 that never gets a mention on 'Vietnam/Protest' related threads is the great Pam Sawyer song, produced by Frank Wilson, recorded by the Supremes in 1970, "Bill, When Are You Coming Back".

It's on the album "Right On!" and first became aware of it in 1970 as its on the flipside to "Up The Ladder To The Roof".

Always loved it!

good.gif

Sean

frankly, vietnam and protest related songs are two separate things. most vietnam songs are not protest songs, a couple (the charades' and jimmy holiday's tracks) are even pro-vietnam, but most are just love songs about lost loves as vietnam was just the context for people's lives for 10 years and love songs were the convention of the genre. vietnam became a backdrop for the songs. protest songs were a separate genre entirely. the original poster didn't really make it clear what the phd student's actual thesis was or what types of songs he/she was looking for. i hope it's something coherent.

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Guest s0ul45

Just a couple of links to previous posts.

In the same month as The Supremes recorded 'Bill, When Are You Coming Back', February 1970, Martha & The Vandellas recorded 'I Should Be Proud' which is quite clearly a protest song. The song was also written by U.K. born Pam Sawyer.

It's probably better known for the other side 'Love Guess Who'.

Chris

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Just a couple of links to previous posts.

In the same month as The Supremes recorded 'Bill, When Are You Coming Back', February 1970, Martha & The Vandellas recorded 'I Should Be Proud' which is quite clearly a protest song. The song was also written by U.K. born Pam Sawyer.

It's probably better known for the other side 'Love Guess Who'.

Chris

think the demo is the same both sides.

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