The song was written by Mick Softley, a British folk singer and was later covered by artists such as, Donovan.
The song was on Mick Softley’s debut album “Songs for Swinging Survivors” and was released in 1965.
What is it about?
In the song, "The War Drags on", by Mick Softly, he sings about destruction, death, and soldiers fighting for peace.
The message that Mick Softly is trying to send is that American lives are being lost for an unjust cause, and that there is unnecessary blood shed happening.
It also mentions the post-war life of the soldiers and the trauma that they must live with for the rest of their lives.
What is being protested?
In the lyrics, it mentions the burning cities and the screams and shouts that resulted from the Vietnam
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One kept occurrin’ and re-occurrin’ in his dream" it shows how the soldiers have been exposed to so much violence and that it messes with their minds which leads to psychological problems when they come back home.
“Found himself involved in a sea of blood and bones. Millions without faces” In this phrase, Mick is referring to the many massacres that happened during the Vietnam War.
“Fighting the Good Fight”
In the beginning of the song, Mick sings that the soldier Dan is going off to fight the good fight. However, later in the song he sings about destruction, blood, and death. Mick perfectly demonstrated how opinions of the war shifted and that in the end, everyone saw the war was pointless except for the government.
After listening to the song, and analyzing the lyrics, one message that Softly sends to his audience is that he wants American troops home.
Softly mentions that instead of trying to "free" the people of Vietnam, there ends up being more blood and tears from both American and Vietnamese soldiers.
This was a common message in the 60's songs as well as protests. These protests broke the rules of conformity that previously existed in the 40's and
Soldiers were dying, and they continued to be sent over to fight. The war itself provided a major wave of anti-war rhetoric that is still prominent today. The anti-war rhetoric was pushed through politicians, celebrities, concerts, protests, average citizens of different economic classes, but most importantly through song. “In the 1960s, several now-influential artists appealed to the disaffected counterculture’s emphasis on peace and love, especially with the sliding approval rates of the Vietnam War. As public approval of the Vietnam War dwindled in the latter half of the 1960s, popular music artists began to record songs that reflected this disapproval and ultimately became a new method of protest (Hopkins).”
It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror,”(80). Richie summed his time in Vietnam in this sentence and it was perfect. Whether it was them sitting around being anxious for what's to come, and the anxiety of it actually happening. Richie even admits that the missions bring a level of excitement, all his worries for the future go away, and he is taken up in all of the parts of war.
Soldiers typically lacked sympathy for what they went through from society ignoring the trauma they brought back from the Vietnam War. The following quote from the article presents the thought process of most soldiers to us: “By forgetting, he said he could prove that he was strong and could master his anxieties… by remembering, he felt he was admitting that he was weak and no longer in control” (Penk and Robinowitz 3). The previous quote shows how the soldiers felt that forgetting made them appear strong rather than letting their emotions weaken them, and this is why we see a soldier’s inner conflict as they force themselves to remember in the poem. In this quote from the poem the soldier has come to the monument for remembering those who passed in the war and as he looks at those names his first thought is: “No tears.
Mitchell Sander’s had described the meaning behind how The Vietnam War had caused soldiers to be constantly on the edge, and how their surroundings were full of sounds and hallucinations. Six men were on watch, camouflaged in the woods scoping out the enemy when they kept hearing noises. The strange noises drove the soldiers to the point where they unloaded several ammunitions of firearms and bombed and fired the entire area just because of hearing choir music and conversation. After returning to the base, they couldn’t even explain to their commanding officer why they ordered such weaponry when they weren’t being attacked. As Tim O’Brien expressed, “Mitchell Sanders was right.
The ending of this lyric relates to Chris Washington that later through the movie must not close his eyes in the sunken place and must stay woke to realize the situation he will shortly be put in. Peele introduces this song to inform the viewer that they must be socially aware and awake to avoid danger and being taken advantage of in life. This perspective can be for both the oppressed minority to become knowledged on their own rights and power. It could also be interpreted to the White majority to be awaken of the social issues around them and see beyond their privilege and white
This is showing how the war affects soldiers and how they is these circumstances are put into deadly positions that often lead to them having to experience such devastating occurrences. People lose their innocence in war and they lose their
ENG IV 3.5 Outline/Graphic Organizer Gibson I. —Introduction Attn. grabber (Fact; anecdote; quote; startling statistic; etc . . .) “Great is the guilt of unnecessary war” - John Adams this portrays one of the main feelings of men and women that fought in Vietnam. General Statement regarding topic (name of author & title of text)
In this song, he is accusing the oil companies of only caring for profits. The oil companies campaign to have the service men intervene because the United States Government is the biggest benefactor of the oil that is being protected. This becomes one giant cycle. This song was written in the 1980’s while the Afghanistan Civil War was taking place. However, this song could have been written in the early 1990’s with the United States invasion of Iraq, or even in today’s political climate, but this predates all of that by thirty
Some even believe it is about the Kent State Shootings although the song was released years before that event occurred. Even though there is not strong evidence to back up this song's true meaning, it
This disconnect makes it hard for the military men to explain their experience and how one small death or win out of thousands can be so significant to them, when people on the other side see it as one of a million casualties. The war is not personified as it is with the soldiers who actually lived through it. Another soldier who feels detached from reality is Adam Schumann, who was put on countless medications to fix him with no help. After the war, Schumann has “lost all hope” and can’t live with himself, feeling that “the end is near for (him), very, very near. Day by
Moreover, the two transitions between the three verses (0:52-1:10; 1:43-2:00) also prove compelling. First, the electric guitar has a high pitch sound and it is distorted thus generating a sound that feels almost chaotic. This combination of sounds may be a reference to the general confusion that people felt towards the outcome of the Vietnam War during the 1960s. Moreover, even though the instruments build up in intensity, it feels like they never truly unleash the frustration and anger that characterizes the lyrics; this choice could be an allusion to Hendrix 's anti-violence beliefs. Therefore, not discharging all the pent-up resentment could be his way of suggesting that violence is not - and will not - be the solution to anything, neither in a war nor in a song.
The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.
This is particularly impactful segment of the speech due to the fact that Kerry explains how the soldiers of Vietnam will not stay quiet and keep America’s so called dirty secret, but stand up and expose the wrongdoing that was done by America. For example, “We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds, but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out”(John F. Kerry). Kerry also defends the people of Vietnam in the sense that they do not even fully grasp the reasoning behind the war in the first place. It is here that Kerry makes the point that the Vietnam war is a destructive waste of human life and time.
He elaborates on lives lost and the ruined lives of generations to come because of the meaningless violence. Edwin Starr experienced war first hand. He was sent to have two years in service during World War II. He felt the effects of as he watched his his friends get killed one by one similar to the way Paul Balmer watched his friends died in the the novel All Quiet on The Western Front. Edwin Starr says in his song “Oh, war, has shattered many a young man's dreams made him disabled, bitter and mean life is much too short and precious to spend fighting wars these days war can't give life it can only take it away”.
The way we want to approach personal problems in front of others can have a great influence on our lives and actions. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Tim O’Brien provides the nature of storytelling with the generalizations about war and the concept of truth. Through the act of storytelling, Daniel Gilbert’s “Immune to Reality,” reiterates how the psychological immune system acts as a barrier preventing us from experiencing unexpected and traumatic events. Both authors respectively combine the meaning behind a true war experience with the unconscious need to deny the painful experience in it to lessen the pain. Sometimes a story can transmit positivity to help find meaning in life during difficult times.