Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry.
I want to thank you for tuning in today. Myself
and the rest of the crew, we're all really busy
out at Radio on the River. Today is Sunday, September
28th, 2025. And this is our fourth annual fundraiser,
Radio on the River. And we're All of us are busy,
so we've kind of decided to reach into our archives
to bring you a program from January 2016 entitled
We've Gotta Get Out of This Place, The Music
of the Vietnam War. My guest on that program
was Vietnam veteran and award -winning author
Doug Bradley. This was Doug's first appearance
on our program and he's appeared with us many,
many times since then. So let me quickly thank
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the donate button. So here we go and now from
2016 here's we got to get out of this place.
All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And
now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
And good afternoon, America, and welcome to Veterans
Radio. Everybody put your VHS on record so you
can pay attention to what's going on during the
football games. You also have to get your tique
or tiac, however you pronounced it when you were
in Vietnam, out and put in the two big giant
reels and hit record because we're going to be
playing a lot of music from the Vietnam era and
I want to say to all of our veteran brothers
and sisters thank you for your service and welcome
home. From all of us here at Veterans Radio we
thank you and so this program is dedicated to
you. We are going to be playing music from the
Vietnam era. The name of the program actually
is We Gotta Get Out of This Place. Nobody really
remembers that song too much, right? The soundtrack
of the Vietnam War. This is a book that has been
written by our guest today. There were supposed
to be two of them and maybe we'll get to second
one in. But Doug Bradley is going to be on and
Craig Werner put together the book We Gotta Get
Out of This Place. It's the soundtrack of the
Vietnam War and it talks all about the different
music that was being played from 1964 up until
1973. And you're going to be amazed by the diversity
and I think the changes in style and the changes
in the environment in Vietnam. I was shocked.
Actually, I was shocked when I was reading the
book. I guess I was very naive. I was unaware
of a lot of things that seemed to be going on
while I was in Vietnam in 1969. But then again,
I guess as a helicopter pilot, I went, I got
to go back to the barracks and I didn't have
to do guard duty and all the other things that
many, many people had to do. So I think that
you're going to find it a very interesting program.
We're going to take a real quick break, and then
we'll be right back with Doug Bradley, one of
the authors of We Gotta Get Out of This Place.
You're listening to Veterans Radio. And that
is Detroit City, and that was by Bobby Bear,
and that was recorded in 1963, just before the
beginning of the Vietnam War. And joining me
on the line right now is Doug Bradley, one of
the authors of We've Got to Get Out of This Place.
So, Doug, welcome to Veterans Radio. Thanks,
Dale. Honored to be with you and with our brothers
and sisters, who hopefully will jump in and participate
in the conversation. And mine was in a CHI. AKA
IDEC. I've got it lined up. I'm ready to go.
Okay, you got that on extended play? Uh -huh.
It's on extended play, right? Yes, of course.
You can record, you know, I forget those are
like eight inch reels of tape or something. Oh
yeah, it was just amazing. So tell me a little
bit about how you got involved in putting this
book together. I found it was a fascinating read
for me. Well, I'm glad you liked it. We talked
to a number of warrant officers and some of your
fellow pilots, so we tried to get around as many
people as we could. The reality is, Dale, that
one of the sad, perhaps the saddest legacies
of the Vietnam War was the lack of welcome home
and reception and sort of attention that Vietnam
vets received. for a variety of reasons, which
I don't think we need to belabor and go into
some places we're still fighting that war. And
what we found, because I'm a Vietnam vet, I was
in, long been in 70 and 71, came back, did a
lot of work with veterans, set up a storefront
service center in Madison that I think helped
become one of the examples and models for the
vet centers that exist now. You know, so I stayed
around with it and we just found one time Craig
and I were both together as a professor at the
UW. We were talking about music because he teaches
a lot of classes about music and he had a segment
of the course devoted to the war and asked me
what I thought about the tunes that he had for
that part of the course. And I said, well, you
know, my soundtrack's a little different. Here's
when I was there. Here are the songs that I would
include. Next thing we knew, this is a little
holiday gathering at a vet center. We had six
or seven vets around standing around us saying,
what about this song? Or no, I remember this.
And there was a band that covered that. And we
sort of looked at each other and said, you know
what? There's something going on here. And the
more we talked to those guys and then the more
that circle expanded and we talked to people
around the country, we realized so many men and
women still had not been able to talk about their
experience, had not been listened to or encouraged
to talk. but they could talk about a song. And
in the course of talking about a song, whether
it was Detroit City, or Jet Plane, or Fortunate
Son, or Dr. Bay, or Boots for Mates and Walkin',
they started then to talk about their experience.
And we sort of came away with this notion that
music, our music, the best music, I think it
was, frankly, it was the best of country, it
was the best of soul, it was the best of rock,
that helps to sustain us. It connected us as
a generation. It connected us to one another.
You could form communities around it. It was
a way you could sort of survive and keep your
act together. And then for some, it was a way
to heal when they got back home. So it was a
joy to do this. We are just so glad that the
200 plus people that we talked to over the course
of 10 years invited us into their lives and shared
their stories. Well, that's for sure. And the
music did evolve dramatically over that 11 year
time period. And we're going to cry and try and
keep it. somewhat chronological as we're talking
about the different kind of music that was there.
In fact, I was just reading a little bit this
morning again of, you know, when the conflict
broke out, the conflict, yeah, the war broke
out, you know, with the Gulf of Tonkin incident
and all these other things that were occurring
there. I mean, many of the people that were in
Vietnam were career officers. The draft really
hadn't kicked in as far as sending people over
there. And so we're looking at older soldiers
and veterans, and they're still listening to,
you know, 40s and 50s music, not necessarily
the new -life music either. Yep. Yep. No, you're
absolutely right. And the other interesting thing,
Gale, is that sometimes some of those songs,
like Detroit City, you talk about 63. I'm there
in 70 and 71. I never heard that song when I
was growing up. I grew up in Silly in Pittsburgh.
I was more of a... urban kind of soul r &b guy
and you know American dance point city was played
on every jukebox every band Filipino band you
know Korean band Taiwanese band Vietnamese band
played it and covered it so it's like for me
that song is 70 and 71 not just 63 so some of
that you're right the soundtrack Really changed
radically, but I mean when you look at some of
the stuff Detroit City out in 63 We got to get
out of places popular in 65 those songs stayed
in in the in the Vietnam jukebox if you will
well, yeah, you mentioned this at all of all
of the bands a band a band that we saw I've got
to be careful here with these bands that we saw,
you know, had these cover songs and they played
everything from the Beatles all the way up, you
know, probably after I left, you know, into the
Jimi Hendrix age. Absolutely, absolutely. And
it was, sometimes it was, you know, really good.
Some of them were excellent. I mean, the Beatles
were very popular at the beginning of the war
also, you know. And, you know, then they kind
of fell by the wayside because they're, I don't
want to say their stuff was... I don't know.
It wasn't as powerful, I guess. It didn't make
you think as much until later on in their career,
initially. But when you were playing the Bobby
Bears and Detroit City and one of the other ones
that I thought of that we put on the list, I'm
not necessarily going to play all these, but
the Green Green Grass of Home by Porter Wagner.
Actually, I'm more familiar with the Tom Jones
version. Right right of that song. Yeah. Yeah,
and both were hits and You know again and you're
hitting on something else here, too You know
that was very curious about this, you know journey
that we took with these Conversations and then
writing the book is that you know a lot of people
I mean Hollywood did a thing of sort of reinventing
what we think about Vietnam and everybody thinks
it's sort of it's for what it's worth by You
know Buffalo Springfield, you know, it's it's
country Joe It's a feel like I'm fixing to die
rag. It's the doors, you know, with a cockroach
now. But, you know, more often than not, the
men and women we interviewed talked about Detroit
City, because that line, I want to go home, of
green, green grass at home, because it's about,
you know, being away and missing your family
and missing the girl that you were in love with.
So some of these songs, you know, that maybe
wouldn't have had a lot of staying power or didn't
have a reason to, because of the lyrics and the
message. I mean, Sloop John B. You know, I mean,
that's not about Vietnam, but you know, I want
to go home. This is the worst trip I've ever
been on. Some people just sort of clung to songs
like that. So it's really kind of interesting
when you sort of look at, you know, the chronology
and the changes, but also the stuff that stuck
and stayed. Anything about home, about missing
somebody. I mean, songs about, you know, like
Gloria, because it's a guy's... Wife's name's
Gloria, so that's going to be his favorite song.
There was a lot of karaoke going on, but it wasn't
called karaoke at the time, which would be really
embarrassing. I got an email this week from Al
Wood, who was a dog handler for the Australians,
and he had recorded, he said, a bunch of AFVN
programs on his big giant recorder, and so he's
going to send me all of those. Oh my God. Which
I definitely will forward them on to you because
I think this is something that is fascinating
to me when we are talking about listening to
the radio. And again, we are talking with Doug
Bradley, one of the authors of We Gotta Get Out
of This Place. And we really do. I realize this
is a football day and it's probably going to
be tough. But I would like you guys, men and
women out there, because nurses were very important
over in Vietnam as well. I'm looking at the list
that I sent you and you said how difficult it
was to come up with the soundtrack for Vietnam.
There are hundreds and hundreds of songs that
are so important. Since I talked to you earlier
in the week, I think I've just been on this quest
to hear as many as I possibly could. My head's
about to explode. on all these things, because
I was talking with Nina, who's our assistant,
who gave you the call, and I was saying, I said,
every song on this list or any other list that
I was reading about in the book, there was a
place and there was a time and there was an event
and there was something else that was tied to
that. And, you know, as a helicopter pilot, we
were fortunate enough that we could listen to
Armed Forces Radio all the time. Yeah, I mean
we had four radios going all the time but the
one that is lowest and kind of the theme of the
whole day was we had AFVN on our automatic direction
finder, I guess is what it was called at the
time. And so as we were flying a compass needle
would point to where the signal was coming from
and in our case it was coming from Saigon because
I was also stationed in Long Bend and we'll talk
about that in a little bit. But so the needle
always pointed to Saigon. And if we ever had
gotten into any trouble, we'd say, you know,
we're having a force landing, we're on a 320
radio out of Saigon, you know, going down, you
know, 75 miles out, something along those lines.
So we always knew where we were and this running
musical theme was there just every day. And as
soon as... Yeah, I think that's a really, that's
a great point. And I think, you know, it's, I
mean, we know... the guys that were out in the
field, you know, in combat, on patrol, you know,
they don't have the benefit of the AFVN and what
we're doing. But even guys that we talked to
and interviewed, you know, grunts that we talked
to, and guys that really did some of the heavy
lifting and fighting, they had a song in their
head sometimes. And sometimes, Eric, one of the
stories, a guy in there saying, you know, I had
this song in my head. you know, from Leslie Gore,
you know, and I had, I wanted it out of my head
because it was distracting me from paying attention
to what we were doing. That's my party, right?
Yeah. I think, and I think the other thing, Dale,
about what you were saying before is, you know,
this isn't unique to this situation and this
war and these soldiers. Everybody, you know,
has musical associations. I'm sure kids are running
around now and they'll say, do you remember the
first time I heard Taylor Swift or, you know,
Kanye West? But, I mean, because that's the way
the brain's wired. You know, we've learned since
and some great studies have been done that where
memory is in your brain is right near where music
is and where you hear. And so the association
is great. But for us, what we think makes this
even special is that because of the trauma of
a war and the kind of war that was and what people
needed to do in order to sort of get through
that the music took on an even greater power
and meaning and sometimes songs that you know
i'm sure we can talk about today or we'll come
back on you take a song like chain of fools by
erika franklin which sort of means one thing
if you listen to it in the states if you're white
another thing if you're listening to it in the
states if you're black and then another if you're
in vietnam and you're black and so it's just
yeah so this became you know, for us like even
more of a revelation and I think speaks to the
power of music and memory and also of the ability
of music to help us to get back home. Right,
I want to play a little segment of Aretha Franklin's
Chain of Fools and that came out in 1967. So
we're all set, let's hear a little bit of this.
Okay, so we're gonna let that kind of play under
while we're talking and as you said that this
song means things to different people right and
You know Arisa was you know, I mean she was the
queen of soul. She was on the cover of Ebony
magazine she was she was the big R &B star of
her generation female and You know, so it's funny
because sometimes when you talk to guys about
an Arisa song I mean, it's like with Hendrix
and Aretha and CCR, I'd say, it's almost just
who they are, not, you know, I mean, some people
like different songs in the person's work, respect,
you know, you know, chain of fools, etc. But
I mean, she was enormously popular and with the
troops. And what's amazing is I heard that song,
I was in college in 67 in the US, and I liked
Aretha. And for me that was just, you know, she
had done respect about, you know, give me some
respect when I come home. It was her again saying,
you know, standing up to a guy, if you're going
to lead me around and play me like a fool, you
know, I'm going to break up with you. I mean,
it was like almost like pre -feminist, you know,
one of the strong woman statements. Absolutely.
Well, you know, some of the black men and women
that we interviewed for the book, they talked
about if they were back home and they heard it,
you know, a whole different You know, I mean,
that meaning was there, sure. But chain, and
when you think of chain and slavery, was out
during the civil rights movement. Aretha wasn't,
you know, very political or out front with her
politics. But like other black artists, like
Sam Cooke and others, they would do a thing called
masking, where she's saying once they do a white
audience, but the black audience that knows there's
a different meaning there. And they took that
about breaking the chains of slavery and being
a pro -civil rights song. Well, then you get
to Vietnam with all that overlay and everything
was going on racially in the country that was
compounded and even more challenging in Vietnam.
And, you know, we talked to guys, black guys
in there, in Vietnam who heard that song, and
it was about the chain of command. And, you know,
we all talk about the Tet Offense of being the
turning point in the war, you know, about what
it did with the media, even though you know,
the North Vietnamese suicide mission. They didn't,
you know, they were in tatters after that, but
it was psychological victory. And everybody talked
about that. Black GIs talked to us about the
death of Martin Luther King as being their turning
point in the war. You know, if we couldn't keep
their black leader alive back home, what in the
heck were they doing over there? What were they
fighting for? And one guy said, You know, when
he heard about King's assassination, he wanted
to go out and shoot the first white guy he saw.
He was so angry. But then he went back to his
hooch. He put on a resa, came to Chain of Fools,
and he sat there and he said, yep, he said, that's
just it. You know, that line, one day this chain's
going to break. He said, that's it. You know,
I'm not doing this anymore. It's going to be
different. I'm not going to follow the rules.
It's not to condone that or say it's the way,
but it's how somebody was feeling. talk about
the power of the interpretation of a song. Oh,
absolutely. I was going to kind of... When we
think about just living through that decade and
all of the changes that were happening not only
in Vietnam but also at home... Everywhere. ...with
the assassinations and the riots and so on and
so forth, music also played a part in recruiting
just a little bit. And I want to play just a
little thing of the Ballad of the Green Beret
because this is... Absolutely. Let's hear this
one for a second. I think that song was played,
I can't imagine how many hundred times that I
heard that even when I was in flight school.
I think it was the only song in the jukebox.
And then, you know, this came along and then
we also had the movie, The Green Berets. Yep.
And if you were in Longbeam, probably at the
other end of the base from where I was, that
was the movie probably four nights a week. I
saw. first and only time, well I've seen it since
we showed up to a class that we had in Madison,
but first time I ever saw that movie was in Long
Beach. Projected up against, you know, a white
wall and, you know, and everybody, you know,
all the guys are sitting there and they're going,
don't go in there, don't go down there, you know,
like watching, you know, a mystery novel. And
then the next night, oh, I felt like I was in
MASH when that program came out. Well, this is
the only movie we have, so this is the one we're
going to watch. But the idea was that the ballad
of the Green Berets, even though it, when did
that come out? 66. 66. 50 years ago this week,
in fact. Right. And I'll bet you that the Special
Forces of the Army and the Green Berets still
sing this song. Oh, I would not be surprised.
It raises such interesting and differing perspectives
from people, but also when you think of that
song, out then at that time when The Beatles
and The Rolling Stones and the whole British
Invasion was going on, Motown had The Supremes
and The Temptation, The Four Tops, The Mamas
and The Papas came on the scene. What was going
on with music? That was the number one song of
the entire year. about the Green Berets with
the top song of 1966. And, you know, we have
a number of different takes on that and different
interpretations. You know, we had a guy from
Wisconsin who was an ROTC captain who, you know,
went and was going over and that was his song.
And he thought it was like, because of that march,
you know, you get the Fuhrman and later you get
the bugle call. He thought it was like, it was
like on Wisconsin, you know, our fight song.
We were going to march across South Vietnam and
win the day and go to the end zone and score
a touchdown and win for democracy. But you know,
his attitude about that song changed after he
was there because he had some problems with the
way we were fighting the war at the time when
he was there in 65. I think probably as soon
as he landed at Tonza -Newton, they opened the
door of the airplane and he went, wait a minute.
This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. And the
other funny thing was, including your fellow
helicopter pilots, this was the most parodied
song that I think that ever existed because the
Marines had their own song about it, different
branches of the Army had their own song about
it, the Air Force had a song about it, the Navy,
because everybody made fun of the song. There
was one of my, and I remember... Even my buddy
Marty Hoyer, who's in the book, who was a helicopter
pilot, high -priced help. He was an officer,
so he called his folk group, the high -priced
help, the lines they had. And it was, silver
wings upon my chest, I fly my chopper above the
best. I can make more dough that way, but I can't
wear no green beret. We had some we couldn't
reprint, you know, the take -offs on this song.
Well, yeah, that's understandable. I can't remember
the lyrics that we came up with it. I'm sure
that it was just as bad at the time. But, you
know, and that's what we did. The songs were
very powerful to us and they were very important
to us. And there were, as you've mentioned before,
they were very, you know, important songs and
they were interpreted different ways by, I just
mentioned this a couple of weeks ago in the program,
they were interpreted differently by enlisted
personnel to, you know, non -commissioned officers,
to warrant officers, to officers, to generals.
How did they interpret these things? We're going
to come up on a break here in about a minute
and a half. When we come back, I want to talk
a little bit more about Armed Forces Radio and
how Good Morning Vietnam was a great flick, but
it wasn't exactly true. No, not close. To everything
that occurred when we were listening to the music
over there. In fact, every time I watch Wheel
of Fortune, Pat Sajak was a DJ. He was on one
of the great shows over there. He was a DJ. Yeah.
Right. And it's always amazing, the people that
we're unaware of. Well, I'm going to play a little
song as we go out and into the news break. And
so I'm going to tell the people across the hall
here, let's go with number 10. And that would
be Fortunate Son. Credence. Great song. OK. So
we're going to... Play this out and then we'll
come back after the news and talk some more.
Yeah, and if the game's out of control, maybe
people will call in. Maybe. Yay. 734 -822 -1600.
You got a song. Give us a call. Okay, we decided
we weren't going to play the Woodstock version
of that one for everybody. Everybody knows that's
Country Joe and the Fish and the Fixing the Dye
Rag and that's kind of the switch over, I think.
In the music of Vietnam we're talking with Doug
Bradley, one of the authors of We Gotta Get Out
of This Place, the soundtrack of the Vietnam
War. Doug, that actually is one of my favorite
songs as weird as it sounds. Well, you're not
alone in that Dale and it's not as weird This
is an amazing thing because when you think of
the public persona and that this image that people
have of Joe and the fish and especially Joe and
of course the lyrics of that song When we met
him we went out to interview him and meet him
and we took a subway got all you picked her up
in his car to go to his house He interviewed
he when he introduced himself to us. He said
I'm a veteran first and a hippie second. I mean,
I don't think many people do I don't think many
people knew that he was a veteran. I don't think
a lot of people knew that. He was in the Navy.
He had to have his mom sign the papers when he
joined when he was 18. He had just turned 18
because he wanted to see the world. This was
an option. And as we were going to break, you
know, two of the guys in Credence were in the
military. Jimi Hendrix was in the military. So
it's like, you know, people forget that this
is a generation where, you know, our fathers
at one were two and they all had served. So,
you know, even sometimes the circumstances notwithstanding,
we signed up and a lot of us went and participated.
And so Joe, he was in pre -Vietnam, and he intended
the song as Gallo's humor. I mean, it doesn't
get darker than that, but I think part of the
reason it appealed to us was he, you know, it's
sometimes when things are bad and there's a chance
they'll get worse. we used to laugh in the military.
I mean, we would joke about our situation, and
that's what Joe intended with this song. Well,
a lot of people never got the joke. He still
gets hate mail today for that song. But you and
others, me, other guys that were there, Colonel
Bo Gritz, you know, who was a rough and tumble,
you know, kind of hawkish guy, he used to play
that song for his soldiers to sort of fire them
up. So, you know, It can take on some different
meanings and have different associations for
people depending on their circumstance. Well,
absolutely. I mean, in a gallows humor, sometimes
it's the only way you can survive. Right. I mean,
if you thought about what could happen to you
all the time, it could, you know... You'd go
crazy. Absolutely right. It would be a little
depressing. And the guys that were out in the
field without the ability to listen to music,
although they got themselves fairly creative,
it sounds like. Let's talk a little bit about
armed forces radio network that really was, you
know, to boost up our morale. Can you talk a
little bit about it? Yeah, and you know, I'll
give them credit for it because, you know, there
was a great book out and, you know, this is later
in the war, I realized that, you know, especially
post -Vietnamization, when Nixon came in and
we know we're leaving, we're turning the ground
war over to South Vietnamese. We're getting out
of there. In order to keep our morale up, the
book that this woman wrote is called Arms with
Abundance. She talks about how they gave us a
lot of stuff and access to a lot of stuff. When
you look at maybe a hooch in 65, 66, as opposed
to a hooch in 70 or 71 like I lived in, it wasn't
air conditioned, but the officer working with
the brass was. But we had fans, we had hooch
maids. You know, we had music. We had tape decks.
We had tons of music. We had a little bar in
the hooch. And I mean, we had some of the comforts.
And I think one thing they were right about was
that music was going to keep our spirits lifted.
So they did what they could do and went as far
as they could with the format on AFEN. Some of
these guys started sounding like the... The DJs
from back home, the playlist evolved. There were
still some songs that were banned and censored,
but they did what they could. And, you know,
and then we had tape decks, we had cassette decks,
we had live bands, we had USO shows, we had people
touring, Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Cash. So music
came to us in just like a tsunami and it was
there to keep our spirits lifted. And I frankly,
it did. For me, Music was huge, obviously. The
book is a testament to that. But even before
I even thought about writing this book, music
to me had enabled me to sort of connect with
the guys I was with, the people I was away from,
and to survive the experience. And then when
I got back home, they helped me to get back home.
Well, there was, there were a lot of, obviously
a lot of music over there. There were stations,
you know, the armed forces radio stations in
Saigon and up. up north there was one up in there.
Yeah, all over. All over the place. But there
were also some pirate stations out there. And
these guys were getting music faster than I think
the DJs in Philadelphia were doing, it seemed
like. You're absolutely right. This is the funny
thing. We have a guy, one of the guys that's
in there that talks about a lot about Hendrix.
And he knew or so that, and it was the way, you
know, that things were sent over. The short story
was that he would get copies of popular music,
especially from the LA and San Francisco area,
before disc jockeys in the States would have
them, because this guy was into the music industry.
And you're absolutely right. I mean, some guys
still talk about the music Hanoi Hannah play,
and that they listen to. And others talk about
the Pirates, or guys just going on a different
band. at frequency on the radios that they had
and playing music there. You know, we wanted
to hear this stuff. It kept us going. You know,
there was a lot about it that we liked. So, man,
we were going to find any way we could. And I
want to thank the Donut Dollies who DJed and
the Red Cross Nurses at a lot of the, you know,
a lot of the bases around Vietnam. Music was
coming and we were taking it. Absolutely. In
fact, I wanted to, I'm going to have them play
another little thing here because it was mentioned
in the release on this and it's going to be cut
number 16. And in it, you mentioned that a Marine
was, you talked earlier about not being able
to get a song out of your head. Yeah. And this
is one of those songs that we couldn't get out
of our heads once we heard it. So here we go.
And of course that was our generation's Sinatra.
That was Nancy Sinatra and that was from 1966.
Boy, that was a big year. Another one of those
big years. And as you mentioned in the book,
this Marine who's out in the boonies couldn't
get this out of his head. Sometimes we couldn't
get the images of Nancy Sinatra out of our heads
either. Absolutely. Absolutely. The guys talked
about, I mean, they were pushing this song so
strong and Nancy, to much to her credit, and
I think it's why she is held in such high esteem
to this day by Vietnam Vets, because she went
there and she has spoken very eloquently herself
about that was like a defining moment in her
life and we're seeing change when things change
because part of what stars like her did when
they went there and performed was they also went
to the hospitals to visit the guys. And that
has forever changed Nancy Sinatra. But man, the
song and the way she looked then with the go
-go boots and the short skirt. The tall white
boots. But it's just amazing that for some of
these guys, you know, we come back and guys talk
about it. And of course, you know, you've got
all that I just mentioned to the appeal. But,
you know, the other thing was that for some of
these guys, when they think about it, they remember
how essential boots were to their survival. You
know, if you remember the foot gear in Vietnam
and how it evolved and adapted, that was, I think,
one of the best design. combat boots ever I mean
because of the way it would air out and you know
to handle water and to handle the heat and the
jungle and I mean they were and but a lot of
these guys would just tell us you know that song
sticks in my head because my boots were essential
to my survival, my boots weren't working, I wasn't
working and so you've got Nancy her appeal the
fact she went to Vietnam it's a great song but
then you also have just a real direct indication
that this is a part of your equipment that you
need in order to be a soldier. Well, it is fascinating
what these songs mean, as you mentioned, to different
people. I want to play another one. This is by
the Sherrells, and this is Soldier Boy. So let's
hear this one. So and that came out, you know
in 1962 this is even before everything started
and I can remember that song from high school
But I can also remember hearing it a lot in the
in the officers clubs with about it with the
bands Yeah, yeah Well, and you know, it's funny
because you mentioned it's a song that was not
necessarily Vietnam songs It's pre Vietnam in
many ways, but it's a song we all knew Um, it's
been in movies, Oliver Stone has a great scene
in that and born on the 4th of July. But again,
it's back to the thing of what the Sheralds are
talking about is what happened to a lot of young
men growing up in those days. And that is they
would go in the military and they believe they're
sweethearts. Maybe they go to Germany like Elvis
Presley, but they went in the service and they
served. And this is the whole thing about you'd
miss them, you'd say goodbye. But you know, a
song like that sort of sticks around and hangs
with you. So even though Again, you know, it's
it's an older song. It was played there people
would sit and then now we become soldiers and
that song is Talking to us, you know, like the
we talked about, you know, mr. Lonely by Bobby
didn't same thing Yeah, but there's nothing to
do with Vietnam, but you know, but in that line,
you know, I'm a soldier I'm a lonely soldier,
you know I mean those are the association to
connections people make and it makes it strong
and hey If it got you through a day or a couple
days Thank goodness that you had that song. That's
right. In fact, I've got another one that follows
up on that one and you'll recognize this. This
is the letter by the box stops. And we got a
lot of letters, a lot of letters, and unfortunately
some people got bad letters, you know, they're
basically the Dear John type letters. And I know
myself as a helicopter pilot, we had figured
out how much fuel we would need to fly from Vietnam
to California. We just didn't quite figure what
we were going to do with the over water flight
stuff. But we were working on it. We were working
on it. Well, you knew. And as you mentioned earlier,
Nixon came in with his plan to get out. Ho Chi
Minh died in 1969, so we figured this thing was
going to end soon. Unfortunately, it didn't really
too much. It kept going. Right. That's right.
Fine, you know, I think you're absolutely right
about, you know, that song, lonely days are gone,
I'm going home. Of course, you know, and it's
something that, you know, I want to mention here
while we're there. Well, you know, like you said,
the lyrics themselves say that, and the notion
of letters. I mean, mail call, I was lucky enough
in the rear we had it twice a day. And, you know,
we lived for it. I mean, you know, we... I mean
not for the Dear John letters that came but you
know if you're getting something from your folks,
you're getting a care package, your girlfriend,
your wife, sweetheart, your brother, your sister,
your friends from back home. It was great, the
letters kept us going and we didn't have email,
we didn't text, we wrote letters. And it took
10 days. Yeah, but the other thing is that there
were other things that we talked about a little
bit with the Green Berets and that March. and
and the bugle call and there's there were there
are some songs and this is where Hendrix really
comes in and he's later but that sonically you
know it's it's some you know you can talk about
all along the watchtower purple haze you know
and we probably have time to get into those today
we'll do it another time we're going to talk
about it again but you know the sat you know
the sound of Hendrix was very much like via he
has a song called machine gun you know if you
listen to his star spangled banner of woodstock
he does you know, the call for, you know, whatever
the naval call is, the stress signal. And I mean,
so it's like, so we, you know, lyrically, a lot
of this stuff we talked about with Bobby Bear,
we just mentioned about with letters, you know,
boots, meaning boots, but other times just sonically
things made you and reminded you of Vietnam.
You know, anything and when, of course, we know.
I mean, if you hear any of us here a helicopter,
we're there. I mean, because that's everything
in Vietnam, choppers all over the place. That
is true. We have to take another break. But we're
going to be right back in just a moment. And
on our way out on this break, let's see what
we can play with this one. Let's do Brown Eyed
Girl, number 21. OK, so we're all set to go.
I got to stretch while we're loading it up into
the computer. But here we go. So we're going
to take another break. Stay tuned. Come on back.
We've got more music after this brief message.
here listening to Inagata Da Vita with the same
headphones I was wearing 50 years ago. They're
as big as tin cans and that to me was the, it
wasn't really the changeover, but it was the
changeover for me as far as music was concerned
because that came out in 1968 and that was by
Iron Butterfly, folks. And then we're going to
key up here in just a second, number 24, which
will be Jimi Hendrix. We're talking with Doug
Bradley. His book is We Gotta Get Out of This
Place, the Soundtrack of the Vietnam War. And
we're only touching just the surface of some
of these songs and what they mean to the Vietnam
veteran and to everybody else. In fact, I was
talking with Nina earlier and she said that this
music is outselling today's contemporary music.
Still. Yeah, yeah. You know, because I was downloading
some of these things that were all remastered
from, you know, 1960s, whatever. You know, the
amazing thing is, Dale, that we teach this course
about this at UW -Madison, and these kids are
born, like, in, you know, 94, 95, 96. Did you
want to play a song and then have me talk? No,
no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. And so, you
know, it could be the Peloponnesian Wars for
all they know, but they know the music. And through
the music, we tell them the veterans' stories
and we let them hear about the war through the
men and women who fought it. And it's so ironic.
And we have two TAs, and they're both post -911
vets, and they listen to this music because their
soundtrack was their own. Individual, they put
on a headset, they had their iPod, they played
their own song. They didn't share it. Ours was
shared. I mean, even if you weren't in Vietnam,
you listened to Inagata Da Vida and The Letter.
and Brown Eyed Girl and all the songs we talked
about. So it's like radio was our internet and
we all listen to the same music. Right and so
what I'm having them do right now is we're going
to start off with a little purple haze here and
we're going to bring it up. This drove my platoon
leader crazy. He couldn't stand it. That's why
we had to wear the headphones. When we'd start
playing it and everybody's dancing with each
other, he would stick his head into our bar area
and tell us to turn it off. So then we would
go to something just as loud and obnoxious as
we could think of, which is just what happens
when you're 19, 20, 21 years old, right? Exactly.
Exactly. We were kids. So you know what's amazing
is that, again, here's another guy. People don't
know it. Hendricks was a soldier. He was a bad
soldier. The army got rid of him. But he was
a screaming eagle. And, you know, so it gives
a whole different maybe definition to, excuse
me while I kiss the sky, you know, if you listen
to, if you know that Hendricks was in the military.
But this is another one of those songs, you know,
because when Purple Haze, I was in college and
that song came out, there was a form of acid.
that was going around for people who were doing
those sorts of things, psychedelics. It was called
Purple Haze. So, you know, sure it's a drug song.
Well, you know, you talk to guys in Vietnam and,
you know, we had the M18 smoke grenades and what
was one of the colors? It was purple. So for
some guys, it's an LZ rescue. It's in the landing
zone. So then Purple Haze is associated with,
you know, being safe, getting out, getting away
from something. So, again, here's a guy who knows
exactly what Hendrix is, but the song can have
some different manifestations depending on where
you were. You mentioned in the book there's a
story about a tunnel rat and that's what he would
think about. Oh, man. I can't imagine being a
tunnel rat myself, but he would throw smoke grenades
in there and that was the Purple A's. Yeah, and
he would play the song because he didn't want
anybody... He would put his little cassette down
there because he didn't want anybody, you know,
he wouldn't want anybody. Here I come. Yeah,
I mean, as we've said already, we're going to,
you know, probably try and do another one of
these with different songs. But, you know, because,
you know, and different units had favorite songs
also. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Ours
were the Ghost Riders of the Sky. And that came
out in 1949, originally. I only thought of the
Johnny Cash version, but this is a Von Monroe,
and I forgot about him. And you know, the amazing
thing about that, there's just another one that
you're picking like that, and you know, that
it's set to the same melody as when Johnny comes
marching home. So maybe that's another reason
it sticks in our heads the way it does. And you
know, Robbie Krieger of The Doors, says it was
the inspiration for Riders in the Storm. And
that was a song that was out when I was there.
Boy, if that didn't have like a Vietnam feel
to it, everybody thinks of the apocalypse now
in the end with the doors. But for me, it's Riders
on the Storm. I mean, and it's like Ghost Riders
in the Sky. Oh, that was it. That was an anthem.
I mean, everybody would stand up for that one.
And the Skypile is another song by The Animals.
Yeah, yeah. Great stuff. It's an amazing book,
Doug, and I really want to thank you and Craig
for putting this together, and I strongly encourage
our listeners to go out and get it. I mean, it's
great reading, it's great stories, especially
for you guys that were on the ground. You're
going to find a lot of people like you out there.
And there were some things going on in Vietnam
that I didn't even know what was going on. I
guess I was... I wasn't paying attention, I guess,
which is nothing unusual. But that's what I want
to know. Where can they get a hold of this? Everywhere,
right? Yeah, everywhere. I mean, hopefully your
local bookstore will tell them to get it. I think
we heard that Barnes & Noble is going to have
it displayed in many other stores around the
country. It's, of course, available on Amazon.
You can get it that way. You know are for my
publisher, you know I could maybe help get people
at discount but and we've also put together our
own website For what we would hope today and
you know people are there's there's a snowstorm.
There's football But if it's the WGG ootp, it's
basically initials of it WGG ootp .com and we
tell men and women go there and share your story
We got it. We got a thing on that site says what's
your song? And we want to hear from people because
we couldn't get to everybody. What's your song?
Tell us. Right. Oh, and you guys could be doing
podcasts for years on these different things.
I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you and thanks
so much for having me on. I'm not quite done
with you yet because I've got about a minute
or so to go. We're going to play another song.
Well, we're going to go out on San Francisco
by Scott McKenzie. Oh, wow. I don't know, it's
still a very emotional song. Anytime I hear this
song, it almost brings tears to my eyes because
of course San Francisco is where I came back
into the country. Yeah, I'm here. And it's where
I left the country. I'm here, yep. And of course
Tony Bennett with his... When I left my heart
in San Francisco, yep. And so all these songs
have so much meaning and I want to get together
with you and Craig after the football seasons
are all over and we'll set up another program
so that we can get you on and maybe get some
of the people that you interviewed in your book.
That would be fun. That's a great idea. That
would be very cool. Let's try that. Yeah, because
some of your, what you call solo, the articles
that they wrote about their memories of this
music and so forth is really, really important.
And as we always say, here on Veterans Radio
is that we want to make sure that we get the
people that were actually there to tell their
stories because sometimes authors kind of get
confused and don't necessarily know what it was.
I know what you're saying. Doug, thank you very
much for being on Veterans Radio. My pleasure,
Dale. Welcome home, everybody. Welcome home to
you too. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this
is the end of Veterans Radio for today. Stay
tuned for just a second though. We're going to
play the entire length of San Francisco by Scott
McKenzie. Until next week, not yet. I'm hearing
it.