Various Does Anybody Know I'm Here? Vietnam Through The Eyes Of Black America 1962-1972 (CD)

(Ace Records) 24 tracks - Vietnam through the eyes of black America 1962-1972 #2
 
This second volume of Vietnam War-related soul music is presented with an eye to the chronology of the war. Not all of the tracks mention Vietnam by name. but it will fairly obvious to the listener that when, say, Joe Tex sings 'when Johnny comes marching home again. I can't see you no more' his hero is not -marching home' from the nearest Piggly Wiggly, or that when Caldin Gill of the Velvelettes sends her message of fidelity to a lover who's 'gone to a faraway land', the lover in question is probably on his way to somewhere that's a bit more dangerous than Belgium. Even without a direct mention of the 'V' word, there can be no doubt that Vietnam is at the head of all of the music that this CD contains...

 ...Well. nearly all of it. anyway. Our opening track actually predates America's full-on involvement in a war with Vietnam. although the US military was already fully involved in Vietnam's own civil war when a young Marvin Gaye recorded his 'Soldier's Plea' in early 1962. Like other recordings of the period that espoused similar sentiments such as Dee Clark's 'I'm A Soldier Boy', 'Soldier's Plea' is representative of its era, and of the patriotic stance that records of its kind tended to take in the days before the horrors of war put an altogether different perspective on things. Less than a decade later and based partly on his brother Frankie's experiences as a serving soldier. Gaye delivered 'What's Going On', his long-playing masterwork that succinctly summed up black America's overall disillusionment with its lot after

Jam, message in most of the music was 'I'm proud of you'. rather than the bitterly expressed 'I should be proud' that is at the heart of Martha Reeves' stark tale of bad news from the start of the following decade. But in 1965, it was far more common to hear soul records that contained the kind of sentiments expressed in former Pilgrim Traveler. and manager/confidante of the late Sam Cooke. J W Alexander's 'Keep A Light In The Window Until I Come Home' than in West Coast bluesman King Solomon's somewhat more concerned (and decidedly less enthusiastic) `Please Mr President'. If the feelings of those left behind at the time are
having lived through half a decade or more of conflict. Like his brothers and sisters. he had come a long way in a short time. By the middle of the decade. and with the conflict well and truly underway, black America's involvement in the war had increased significantly. thanks to changes in US induction policy that made it virtually impossible for poorly-educated Americans of any colour to avoid call-up With increased participation came increased musical involvement

—although at this still-relatively-early stage in the proceedings. the innocently captured by the Velvelettes ('if a pretty girl should pass you by. I won't mind if you give her the eye...[but] remember that your heart belongs to me') and also with somewhat more desperation by Stax's sweet soul trio the Charmers (-please. Uncle Sam, send back my man'), those of the enlisted are fully represented by two men here, who both served in the US military during the 60s. albeit not in Vietnam, and who — although not related — share a surname. William Bell received his 'greetings' from Uncle Sam in 1964. and recorded his obviously heartfelt 'Soldier's Goodbye' around the time of his call-up.

A couple of years later Houston-born Archie Bell adapted the Monitors' 1966 recording of the Valadiers' 1961 Motown hit 'Greetings This Is Uncle Sam)' for an even more desperate 'A Soldier's Prayer 1967'. Happily for both men. their tours of duty did not take them anywhere near the Ho Chi Minh Trail. but the war had a temporarily adverse effect on the chosen career of each. William Bell — Stax's premier solo male vocalist at the time of his