Bias_2012 wrote on Dec 10
th, 2023 at 12:34pm:
Big Donger wrote on Dec 9
th, 2023 at 3:58pm:
Vietnam was a monumental foreign policy failure and an existential loss, not just of all those 19 year old kids, but our integrity, our commitment to our own values. After all, we weren't defending ourselves or our friends in Nam as we did in WWII, we were getting involved in the post-colonial affairs of a neighbour. This wasn't merely at the behest of our imperialist Uncle. We meddled, mobilised and got in ourselves, so do you know?
The biggest lie was the "Domino Effect". It was assumed that if we didn't fight the North Vietnamese, communism would spread to Australia, and millions of voters believed it - bloody idiots
The North Vietnamese won the war, and then, communism was supposed to spread to Australia, but instead, we got convoys of leaky boats full of cheeky Vietnamese refugees escaping the new regime in Vietnam
Believing the "Domino Effect" only exposed the utter stupidity of the voters, both Lib voters and others who believed it, for keeping the Coalition in power up to 1972
Menzies kicked the bucket in 1965, so he didn't have to face the music and explain why Australia was spared communism, nor did that upstart Holt. As a conscript, I was getting my revenge. I visited Portsea not long before that idiot Holt met his demise, I went on a sightseeing drive from Balcombe Signals camp where I was stationed, to Portsea. I unwittingly left a bad omen for Holt perhaps. You wouldn't visit that place twice. After Holt died, I remember thinking, "Serves him right, another sadistic killer of young blokes gone". I shed no tears for either of those cowardly buffoons
The song "I was only nineteen" was a made up story with a catchy tune based on emotion and actual things that can, and do happen in battle. It was nothing more than that. Of course a nineteen year old would be as scared as sh!t walking through a jungle waiting for a bullet with his name on it. The song doesn't say how youngsters can avoid such suicidal situations ... simply don't join the military at that age
There needs to be a song produced for the politicians, called: "We were only 55, as stupid as hell and lying deceitful bastards"
The song's brilliant because it captures the details. It fits more into each line than any song I've heard. Check out the opening verse:
Quote:Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
It was a long march from cadets.
His parents and his little brother watching him graduate basic training, their boy now all grown up.
Filled with Australian places, invoking details you can almost smell: the tropical rain on Townsville streets, military uniforms, shaving cream:
Quote:And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean.
And there's me in me slouch hat with me SLR and greens.
Line by lined filled with visceral truth, and do you know? It was true. Most of it, anyway:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/doublej/music-reads/features/breaking-down-the-tru...Then, cut to the chase, no messing around. The song is telling a story.
Quote:From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat
I'd been in and out of choppers now for months.
You know it's not going to go well - the music tells you that, A minor.
Quote:And then someone yelled out "Contact", and the bloke behind me swore
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar
And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon.
Then the refrain. This is a coming of age story, with a point:
Quote:And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel
God help me, I was only 19.
Interestingly, Redgum were Maoists, who were big in Melbourne in the 70s. At the time, elements of the Cultural Revolution were exported to Australia. The place names and uniquely Australian setting is there to inspire a form of folksy, home-grown proletariat nationalism.
The detail in the song is informed by principles of socialist realism, popular in plenty of Soviet, but also British films - think Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. While charting bands like Culture Club were going down a different route at the time, writing quick, lame lyrics, Redgum were playing a different game.
Mind you, political songs were big in the early 80s. U2 were huge. The Clash, Spy Versus Spy in Sydney and the Oils. Redgum showed others how it could be done.
Regardless of their Maoist roots, they inspired generations of Australians, particularly veterans. That's the sign of greatness - to transcend class, poltical ideology, inter-generational taste and even ethnicity. I've heard of Vietnamese veterans being moved by this song too.
God help us all.
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I Was Only Nineteen - New Release (Read 3704 times)
