{"id":2592,"date":"2016-11-21T12:09:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T20:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/?page_id=2592"},"modified":"2018-06-01T15:22:40","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T22:22:40","slug":"veterans-songs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/scotty-the-skeptics\/veterans-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans’ Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nov. 23, 2016<\/p>\n

Yo!<\/p>\n

I’m finally getting around to posting the page of Vietnam-era songs that I’ve been meaning to create since I got up to speed on websites. A recent thread on the vwar-l discussion list reminded me that I have recordings of several Vietnam-related songs that not many people have heard or remember and which deserve a much wider audience.<\/p>\n

Combat Assault<\/h1>\n

Rick Duvall<\/p>\n

Rick lived down the road from me back in the 1980s when he was recording this album. He played at many veterans’ events in those years and was part of a group of anti-war Vietnam vet musicians that toured through the old Soviet Union in solidarity with the anti-war veterans of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Rick moved to Nashville in the early 1990s, and I hear he is doing very well.<\/p>\n

Below is the cover of my copy of the cassette insert of his album Combat Assault<\/em>, complete with autographs. The physical tape is kind of warbly and full of glitches after nearly thirty years, which results in the poor fidelity. Sorry about that. I’d be happy replace it, but the album does not seem to be available anywhere. After extensive Googling, I found that two of the songs, “Johnny Rambo” (written by Country Joe McDonald) and “What Kind of Men Are These,” are included on a 13 CD compilation of over 330 Vietnam-related songs with artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, John Fogerty, Country Joe, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and dozens of others that was released a few years ago: Next Stop is Vietnam, The War on Record 1961\u20142008<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"combat-assault-duvall\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

This is an interview with Rick <\/a>from the Vietnam Veterans Against the War<\/em> magazine in 1987, when the Combat Assault<\/em> album was released. The three songs here are my favorites from the album. If Luck of the Draw<\/em> ever gets made into a movie (dream on!), I hope to convince Spielberg or Coppola or Scorsese to use them in the soundtrack.<\/p>\n

Combat Assault<\/h3>\n

Rick Duvall (Written and performed by Rick)<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Combat-Assault.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Sgt. Willie<\/h3>\n

Rick Duvall (Written and performed by Rick)<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Sgt.-Willie.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Missing<\/h3>\n

Rick Duvall (Performed by Rick, written by my good friend, Brad Smith)<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Missing.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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We Just Did What We Were Told<\/h3>\n

\"711nunfqkkl-_sy355_\"<\/a>I’ve been an off-and-on member of what is now the West Coast Songwriters Association since 1984. In 1998 I was at one of the monthly competitions when Don Forbes knocked us out with this song. I asked him to send me a tape of his performance and for permission to forward it to the universe. The song with his full band, Don Forbes and Reckless, is on his album Somethin’ About Guitars<\/em><\/a> or at Reverb Nation here<\/a>. But being an old 1960s folkie, I prefer his solo performance because I was there in the audience and because of his heart-felt introduction.<\/p>\n

Written and performed by Don Forbes at a West Coast Songwriters’ competition at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA–1998<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Did-What-We-Were-Told-live.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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After The War<\/h3>\n

A few years ago I attended the WCSA Songwriters’ Conference where one of the presenters was an award-winning Nashville songwriter, Jon Ims<\/a>, whose performance brought the audience to its feet. Jon told us that he himself was not a veteran, but that he had a close friend who was a Nam vet and had been severely wounded. He spent many months in a VA hospital, and Jon became a regular visitor as his friend recovered and got to know many vets who collectively inspired this song.<\/p>\n

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Written and performed by Jon Ims at the West Coast Songwriters’ Conference<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/After-the-War.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u00a0(There is also a YouTube of this song performed at The Wall by his co-writer at the anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial in 1993, with President Clinton and Gen. Colin Powell in attendance, but I like this version much better.)<\/p>\n

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Gotta Save Pittsburgh<\/h3>\n

\u00a0This was recorded in 1994 (with the late Keith Allen on guitar). I have changed some of the lyrics over the years when I perform it (e.g., “played gooks and grunts with the Charlie Cong” is now “played shoot to kill with the Charlie Cong”). Also, the lyric in the excerpt from the novel Luck of\u00a0 the Draw <\/em>is slightly different than the recorded version due to the time-frame in which the novel is set (1972), as the character writes it while he was in Vietnam.
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Scott Morrison (with Keith Allen on guitar.)<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Gotta-save-Pittsburgh2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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I wrote “Gotta Save Pittsburgh” into my second novel, Luck of the Draw,<\/em> but recorded the video below in 2008 in a promotion for the my first novel, The Energy Caper or Nixon in the Sky with Diamonds<\/em>. In it, I do the entire schtick from the open-mic bar scene in the second novel (excerpt below). It’s also a bit of a a time capsule in that I had just returned from a trip back home when John McCain was reported having made a campaign stop in W. Pa. while I was back there, prompting me to video the song in hopes of persuading other veterans to vote for Obama.
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