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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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 Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject: War-mongering peace anthem? |
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A family has pulled its two youngest children from an elementary school over objections to the lyrics of the Vietnam War-era song One Tin Soldier.
Brenda and Bob MacDonald of Williamstown, about 10 kilometres northeast of Cornwall, were perplexed when their 10-year-old daughter, Kara, rhymed off the lyrics of the 1969 song, which is to be performed by her Grade 4 class at a school assembly tomorrow.
They want the song dropped.
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Mr. MacDonald said he and his daughter studied the lyrics and typed them out. He said he understands that there is an important twist at the end of the song, but believes it's a hard message for children to grasp.
"I know the twist in the end. The point is, the kids don't."
Ms. MacDonald objects to the violence in the song, and the words "heaven" and "judgment day," as well as the exhortation to "go ahead and hate your neighbour, go ahead and cheat a friend."
She said she pays taxes to the public school board so she can send her children to a school where there are no religious references.
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I can understand his concern about religion in the schools, but come on. Anyone who's been through high school English class knows that religious allusions abound in literature.
I can also understand that some students at that age might not pick up the anti-violence theme, which is expressed more subtly than the ostensibly pro-violence lyrics. Presumably, though, that's why they have a teacher, to explain these things.
Then again, when I was in Grade 4, our teacher told us that the Randy Newman song Short People was offensive to(you guessed it) short people. Like, this woman actually thought that Newman wrote the song in order to make a statement against short people. So I guess you can't always count on elemntary school teachers to pick up on nuance and satire.
(Yes, that teacher was very short, and tried rather depsperately to argue that we, the students, should be offended by the song, because we were short. This of course ignored the fact that, unlike her, most of us would not be short forever.)
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/news/city/story.html?id=4b117cc6-4ac2-4c3f-86a6-5c4f810a145d&k=69547 |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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With so many people getting blown to bits every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, I guess anti-war songs can still make some people very uncomfortable.
Good 
I just got reminded of some other anti-Vietnam war themed music tonight--the broadway musical "Hair" (from 1968). My mum bought the album in the 60's and it later became part of the scratchy record pile at our house.
Geez I still know all the lyrics. Great stuff.
I bet her parents would have a fit if she'd come home with some of those songs as well.
"3-5-0-0"
Ripped open by metal explosion
Caught in barbed wire
Fireball
Bullet shock
Bayonet
Electricity
Shrapnel
Throbbing meat
Electronic data processing
Black uniforms
Bare feet, carbines
Mail-order rifles
Shoot the muscles
256 Viet Cong captured
256 Viet Cong captured
Prisoners in Niggertown
It's a dirty little war
Three Five Zero Zero
Take weapons up and begin to kill
Watch the long long armies drifting home |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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| You folks should warn us old codgers when you're gonna bring up old tunes. I'm gettin flashbacks. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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| can we all agree that religious nuts and ANTI-religious nuts both seem to screw their heads on a bit too tight and seem to be sheltering their kids too much? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 12:07 am Post subject: |
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You folks should warn us old codgers when you're gonna bring up old tunes. I'm gettin flashbacks.
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One Tin Soldier was ubiquitous on the oldies radio stations I listened to in the 80s and 90s. |
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supernick
Joined: 24 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Too bad they didn't sing this song:
Hell's Half Acre
by Robbie Robertson
album:
It's way up in the Black Hills where we come from
There's a girl and she warned me don't pick up that gun
By the law of the land
By the promise that might is right
She would hold me and cry - don't you go off and fight
Somebody knocking at my door
Oh, I been called to war
Say goodbye to Tobacco Road
Wear my colors, call my brothers
For my country I'll go
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Shakin' with fever
Rumble in the jungle
Down on Hell's Half Acre
She wrote me a letter and said what have they done
Placed a crown of thorns an this native son
Oh, maybe they're right, but maybe they're wrong
But what can I do, you're not here you're gone
Something in the air is much too quiet
Hear my heartbeat
The storms that rages from within
Three times thunder, blood runs cold
Got this wound on my soul
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Walking on fire
We got trouble in the wasteland
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Back in the land where buffalo roam
Is this place that I called home
She said you've changed, you're not the same
Clouds of napalm and the opium
The damage was already done
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Shakin' with fever
Rumble in the jungle
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Down on Hell's Half Acre
Walking on fire
We got trouble in the wasteland
Down on Hell's Half Acre
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:33 am Post subject: |
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("Canuckistan" - I hope you appreciated the "Hare Krishna" track on the "Hair" album...)
Anyway, some of my Korean High school students (and teachers) were privileged to hear me sing a growling karoake version of probably the first big anti-Viet Nam war song - "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. And, I've also repeatedly played Bruce Springsteen (and E-Street Band) DVD versions of "War" and "Born in the U.S.A." with simplified explanations of their anti-war themes... (Last Fourth of July I passed out some sparklers to light up while "Born in the U.S.A". played on the big screen and blasted on surround sound speakers --- and yet I still got rehired - go figure...  )
I doubt that I'd be given such free reign back in the states... |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:06 am Post subject: |
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| Anyway, some of my Korean High school students (and teachers) were privileged to hear me sing a growling karoake version of probably the first big anti-Viet Nam war song - "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. |
In the interests of fairness, next time you should sing Dawn Of Correction, the much-underappreciated rebuttal song that came out shortly after Eve Of Destruction.
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The western world has a common dedication
To keep free people from Red domination
And maybe you can't vote, boy, but man your battle stations
Or there'll be no need for votin' in future generations
So over and over again, you keep sayin' it's the end
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
There are buttons to push in two mighty nations
But who's crazy enough to risk annihilation?
The buttons are there to ensure negotiation
So don't be afraid, boy, it's our only salvation
So over and over again, you keep sayin' it's the end
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
You tell me that marches won't bring integration
But look what it's done for the voter registration
Be thankful our country allows demonstrations
Instead of condemnin', make some recommendations
I don't understand the cause of your aggravation
You mean to tell me, boy, it's not a better situation?
So over and over again, you keep sayin' it's the end
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
You missed all the good in your evaluation
What about the things that deserve commendation?
Where there once was no cure, there's vaccination
Where there once was a desert, there's vegetation
Self-government's replacing colonization
What about the Peace Corp. organization?
Don't forget the work of the United Nations
So over and over again, you keep sayin' it's the end
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
So over and over again, you keep sayin' it's the end
But I say you're wrong, we're just on the dawn of correction
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What I find most interesting are the lines praising voter registration, the UN, and the Peace Corps. This leads me to suspect the lyricist was a liberal "New Frontier" anti-communist, rather than a paranoid John Birch type. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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My rememberance is fuzzy (and I never heard the follow-up song...) but I guess the Viet Nam war started during the "New Frontier" days and really got going with the "Great Society" ... Those who went "all the way with LBJ" sometimes ended up tragically like "Ballad of the Green Berets'" singer-writer Sgt. Barry Sadler. I think he ultimately committed suicide, but the Wikipedia account gives an interesting prelude:
Later in life and after serving time in prison for a fatal shooting, Sadler moved to Guatemala City, and it was there that he was shot multiple times, several in the abdomen. He died a little more than a year later at his mother's house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Some believe his shooting was a result of his efforts to train and arm the Contras.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Sadler |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 2:09 am Post subject: |
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| My rememberance is fuzzy (and I never heard the follow-up song...) but I guess the Viet Nam war started during the "New Frontier" days and really got going with the "Great Society" |
I think your remberance is pretty much spot on, Camelot apologists notwithstanding. |
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Butterfly
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 5:08 am Post subject: |
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| khyber wrote: |
| can we all agree that religious nuts and ANTI-religious nuts both seem to screw their heads on a bit too tight and seem to be sheltering their kids too much? |
Truth. |
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