Vietnam: A War Set To Music Trivia Quiz

Answer: Country Joe and the Fish

"Country Joe" McDonald and his band The Fish hailed out of San Francisco and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" was on their second album, which was released in 1967. The band was active between 1966 and 1971 and reformed on occasions after that.

Answer: Tom Paxton

In "Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues", Paxton dealt with the allegations that GIs were on drugs a lot of the time, and he even had US and Viet Cong patrols sharing some weed:
"Straight from Uncle Ho's victory garden.
We call it Hanoi Gold."

Paxton wrote many songs during the course of the war and, as he noted in concerts, afterwards. The songs included "Jimmy Newman", "Bayonet Rap", "My Son John", "Born On the Fourth Of July", "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation" and "Peace Will Come".
Born in Chicago in 1937, Paxton's family moved away when he was ten and eventually settled in Oklahoma, which he considered to be his 'home'. His volume of work included protest songs, love songs, children's songs and songs of social comment.

Answer: Arlo Guthrie

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant..."

Some of the other lyrics are not repeatable on a family oriented site such as this, sufficient to say Guthrie found that his criminal conviction for littering was considered abhorrent among the murderers and rapists he (allegedly) met at the Draft offices.
"Alice's Restaurant Masacree" was the tale of Guthrie's arrest for littering in Stockbridge Massachusetts, and its effect when he was called to the draft board. It was made into a movie in 1967.
Arlo Guthrie was born at Coney Island, New York, in 1947 and was a son of the legendary master of the folk music genre, Woody Guthrie.
Guthrie claimed that his Draft board experiences were based on truth. In a busy career, he reprised many of his father's songs, and also sang and recorded regularly with his father's great collaborator, Pete Seeger. He was also noted for bringing Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" to widespread attention and it remained a staple of his concerts for many years.

Answer: Phil Ochs

Born in El Paso, Texas, in 1940, Phil Ochs was a writer of some of the most poetic lyrics of the 1960s and also created some of the decade's most passionate protest songs. There included songs about Civil Rights and Vietnam. "One More Parade" and (although not totally about Vietnam), "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" found a place among war protesters, while "The War Is Over" predicted the human consequences of the ending of the conflict.
("Draft Dodger's Rag" refers to Senator Thomas J. Dodd, of Connecticut, a noted anti-communist campaigner.)
To many in the 1960s, Ochs was a songwriting equal of Bob Dylan, but while Dylan moved away from protest songs towards more mainstream pop and rock, Ochs appear trapped in the troubadour/protest singer genre.
A manic depressive, Ochs seemed to lose his way, musically, when the war ended. He died by suicide in 1976.

Answer: Pete Seeger

Seeger was born in Manhattan in 1919 and became one of the most influential singers of the late 1950s and 1960s. An avowed Communist, he survived (just about) the McCarthy blacklists and wrote or co-wrote a lengthy catalogue of protest songs. These included ""If I Had A Hammer", "Where Have All The Flowers Gone", "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and "We Shall Overcome".
Bruce Springsteen later sang "Bring 'em Home" about the war in Iraq.

Answer: Dolly Parton

"Each night before they go to sleep they fold their little hands
And say a prayer for Daddy fighting in their far-off land
So tonight I'll help them say their prayers like I've always done before
God give me courage to tell them that Daddy won't be home anymore."

Born in Tennessee in 1946, Dolly Parton became one of the most popular female entertainers of her time. Her folksy, self-deprecating charm won her many fans in a career as a performer, songwriter and movie star.
In a singing career of more than 50 years, Parton had around 20 US Country number one singles.

Answer: Billy Joel

"We held the day in the palm of our hands
They ruled the nights, and the nights
Seemed to last as long as six weeks...
...On Parris Island
We held the coastline, they held the highlands
And they were sharp, as sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive..."

Born in The Bronx, NYC in 1949, Billy Joel was probably not noted for songs with deep meaning, but "Goodnight Saigon" reflected the hopelessness felt by many GIs in a war where the enemy would not stand still and fight face to face.
Other 'political' Joel songs included "Leningrad", "We Didn't Start The Fire", and "Allentown"
While his body of work was greatly admired, in a 30-year career from 1973, Joel scored just three number one US hits, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" in 1980, "Tell Her About It" in 1983, and "We Didn't Start the Fire" in 1987.

Answer: John Prine

"Oh, but the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And it gave him all the comfort as he lacked,
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back."

The song was entitled "Sam Stone" and told of a homecoming reality check. Other songs in a similar vein included Bill Dannoff"s "Readjustment Blues" (most famously covered by John Denver) and Tom Paxton's "My Son John".

John Prine was born in Maywood, Illinois, in 1946 and had a diverse career before turning to music. He served in the Vietnam-era US Army, but was stationed in Germany. Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan were both fans, and Prine had a professional relationship with Steve Goodman.
Prine's 1972 song "The Great Compromise" also dealt with Vietnam war issues.

Answer: Joan Baez

Baez included "Saigon Bride" on her 1967 album "Joan" She wrote the melody and the lyrics were by Nina Duscheck.

Born at Staten Island, New York in 1941, the Newport Folk Festival of 1959 brought Baez to the attention of a wide audience. Several well-received albums followed and throughout her career she was noted for the strength of her topical songs and her commitment to causes such as civil rights, poverty and peace. She opposed American military intervention in Iraq, as she had about Vietnam.
While her albums sold well and she was known to a loyal fan base, Baez had few hit singles. Her cover of Robbie Robinson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was a US pop number three in 1969, while four years earlier her cover of "There But For Fortune" by Phil Ochs made number eight in the UK.
"Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word" was written by Baez's one-time lover Bob Dylan, but she became more associated with it than he ever did.

Answer: Kris Kristofferson

Born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936. Kris Kristofferson was something of a sportsman in his early life and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford in 1960, where he began writing songs. He came from a military family and joined the US Army, rising to the rank of Captain and flying helicopters. He left the Army in 1965 and embarked on a career of songwriting, singing and acting.
Dave Dudley recorded "Vietnam Blues" in 1966, becoming one of many to cover Kristofferson songs.
Well known compositions included "Lovin' Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)", "Help Me Make It Through the Night", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and, of course, "Me And Bobby McGee".
Kristofferson sympathised with the soldiers who had served in Vietnam but in a 1993 interview he said: "My attitude towards Vietnam today is 180 degree different. We killed two million Vietnamese as well as killing 56,000 Americans. We did worse than that, though, I think we killed, for a lot of Americans, the notion that America stands for liberty and justice for everybody."

Answer: Charlie Daniels Band

"The ground at home was covered in snow
and I was covered in sweat
My younger brother calls me a killer
and my daddy calls me a vet

Everybody says I'm someone else
and I'm sick and there's no cure
Damned if I know who I am
where was only one place I was sure
When I was -
[Chorus]
Still in Saigon
Still in Saigon
I am still in Saigon
in my mind"

Born in 1936 in North Carolina, Charlie Daniels was noted for his country and rock songs. His biggest hit was "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", which topped the Country charts in 1979.

Answer: Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black" was born in Arkansas in 1932 and died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2003.
He had several US country number ones including "There You Go" (1956); "Don't Take Your Guns to Town (1958); "Ring of Fire" (1963) and "A Boy Named Sue" (1968).
"Folsom Prison Blues" was a number one in 1968, and his concerts in Folsom and San Quentin prisons were career highlights.

Answer: Lenny Kravitz

"We are like pirates and we are comin' with the biggest ego
We're gonna bring it down and give it to you, that's how we go
We're gonna drop from the sky like a killer tornado".

Born in New York City in 1964, Kravitz covered most genres as a writer, performer and producer. He won four successive Grammys between 1999 and 2002.
"It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" was his top selling single in the US pop charts, in 1992, but he had several alternative and mainstream rock number 1s, including "Fly Away" in 1998.
"Back In Vietnam' was on the 2008 "It Is Time For A Love Revolution" album.

Answer: Paul Hardcastle

The song was top of the UK charts for five weeks in 1985 and also reached the US top 20.
Letting the facts get in the way of a good story, the actual average age of US soldiers killed in Vietnam was 23. [Source: Southeast Asia Combat Area Casualties Current File (CACCF)].
Hardcastle was born in London in 1957 and was regarded as a keyboards virtuoso who had a number of dance chart hits, including "Sound Chaser" and "Rain Forest".
In 1989, he released "19" and it hit the top of the charts in ten countries. It peaked at number 15 in the US. This was a mixed sung/spoken narrative set over a dance beat.
Trivia note: Hardcastle was the composer of a number of UK TV themes, including 'Top of the Pops' and 'Holiday'.
(The three 'wrong' answers were all Scottish.)

Answer: Merle Haggard

"I read about some squirrely guy,
Who claims, he just don't believe in fightin'.
An' I wonder just how long,
The rest of us can count on bein' free.
They love our milk an' honey,
But they preach about some other way of livin'.
When they're runnin' down my country, hoss,
They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me."

One of Haggard's most famous songs was called "Okie From Muskogee". ("I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee/A place where even squares can have a ball...").
Merle Haggard was born in California in 1937 and had an early life of crime that included spells in juvenile and adult correctional facilities.
He was 'discovered' singing along at a Lefty Frizzell concert and turned his life around and became a popular singer. Between the mid 1960s and mid 1980s. Haggard recorded 38 Country number one hits and received a catalogue of awards, including three Grammys.
Haggard's songs were often seen as mainstream and 'Establishment'-supporting. He was regarded in protest song circles as a right-winger, but even that arch leftie, Phil Ochs, admired him, including "Okie From Muskogee" in his live "Gunfight At Carnegie Hall" album.
Joan Baez, another darling of the left, covered Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home" and "Mama Tried".