How was music used during the Vietnam War?

leokanes2001: How was music used during the Vietnam War?
I’m doing a Senior Seminar paper on Vietnam and the music of time. My prof said I should focus on how the younger college age generation used the music to express themselves and just how they used the music in general. Anyone know any good books or sources for this?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Michael N
Any good book about social movements during the 1960s has to include the role of music. No decent history of rock can ignore the political implications of the music, or the war that was going on in southeast Asia.

Also consider folk music and folk-rock. Three links to get you started.

Answer by Jack P
You might consider using lyrics of the time as opposed to books and websites.

You can watch the ‘general’ cold war evolve into Vietnam in the lyrics by Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, [some] Kingston trio, Dave Van Ronk and others of the cusp time when Vietnam was just tuning up. As the worm turned you see CW splitting as a direct result of the war, Folk fading to be replaced by predominantly anti-war lyrics, political lyrics, or ‘civil rights issue’ lyrics.

Merle Haggard, “Okie From Muskogee” and “You’re Walking on the Fighting Side of Me” emerged as a battle flag for the pro-Vietnam War factions, along with a song by an ex-Special Forces guy [name escapes me] “Silver Wings upon His Chest” about the Special Forces.

These songs were countered on the other side by “**shole From El Paso” by Kinky Friedman, “Your Flag Decal won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” by John Prine, songs by Steve Goodman, Kris Kristofferson, many others were openly anti-Vietnam War and made it into poplularity

The troops had their own obliquely anti-war preferences in music. We Gotta Get Out of this Place is an example. The song from the broadway musical hair, “Happy Birthday Abey Baby” became fairly popular and reflects the racial side of things. The haunting sound of “We Will All Go Down Together” by Billy Joel, sounds of helicopters in the background maybe covers the whole waterfront.

Jesse Winchester left to avoid the draft during the “Love it or Leave It” stage of things. Later he released a great album, “Learn to Love It” that’s worth a listen.

VIETNAM ERA ANTI WAR MUSIC
https://www.jwsrockgarden.com/jw02vvaw.htm
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4498011.stm
https://folkmusic.about.com/od/toptens/tp/Top10Protest.htm