I just bit the bullet (har) and ordered a Del Ton A2 style AR 15 kit, complete with carrying handle, A1 style vegetation-snagging flash suppressor, and I also got actual A1 surplus hand guards, pistol grip, and stock.

When it arrives in a while, and I'm able to assemble it, my plan is to use the A1 parts to make a retro-looking rifle. I even paid a little more money to get 20 round magazines to complete the look, instead of going with far cheaper 30 round mags that are in use today. All along, I've been planning to get a cheap flash drive type MP3 player, fill it with a Vietnam War playlist, and duct tape it to the stock or something like that, for musical accompaniment while shooting.

Help me come up with a good Vietnam War playlist.


This is what I've got so far...I am trying to pick things that are both from the appropriate time period (60s through 70s) as well as ones that are dealing with the subject of the Vietnam War, although I don't consider those rules to be absolutely written in stone if there's a really awesome song I could add to the playlist.

Barry McGuire...Eve of Destruction (I love this song...I set it as the background music for Jagged Alliance 2 when you're shopping for weapons online to equip your mercenary squads)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLsElbW9Xo


Rolling Stones...Paint It Black (pretty much mandatory, thanks to Kubrick)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BhHTA6Gzn0

Jimmy Webb...Galveston (NOT the Glen Campbell version...Webb claimed that this song was really about the Spanish American War, but I think he said that just to avoid controversy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaMf6ydI-YI

CCR - Fortunate Song (exactly the kind of song I'm looking for, topical and from the right time period...it needs to be longer!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA

CCR - Have You Ever Seen The Rain (this is about the Tet Offensive, right?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9_ipu9GKw

CCR - Run Through The Jungle (I can't actually understand the lyrics, but if we're running through the jungle with 200 million guns it MUST be about 'Nam.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbI0cMyyw_M

Eric Burdon and The Animals - When I Was Young (this song is from the right time period, and it alludes to how in previous generations people were much more hardcore than today. It's actually about World War II but many people associated it with 'Nam, so because of cultural history it makes it into the playlist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur30bn_3G58

Eric Burdon and The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (This song was popular during the Vietnam War, and was listened to people in Vietnam, so again because of cultural history it makes it into the playlist, even though the song is actually about escaping the economic realities of life in an urban setting.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNEiZhpinY

SSgt Sadler - Ballad of the Green Berets (you can't ask for a more topical song than this. This is pretty much exactly about the Vietnam War.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y5GDvN9_OE

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (I am under the impression that people attribute this song to the Vietnam War)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love (When the truth is found to be lies...is this song about the "credibility gap" that people began to experience regarding the Federal government and the Vietnam War?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jj3wZVc7nw

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around An Old Oak Tree (Not only was this a number one song in, I believe, the 70s, it was also from the Vietnam War era...I don't know if the song is actually about Vietnam or not, but was it the thing that kicked off the use of yellow ribbons during wars? I'm not sure if it goes with the rest of the songs in terms of how it sounds, but I have to at least consider adding it to the playlist.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NCZ4l8FCFc

Edwin Starr - War (It must explicitly actually be about Vietnam, so here we go.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKAX7Jp8wo...feature=related

Black Sabbath - War Pigs (Well, it's still from the 70s, and it's probably pretty much about Vietnam, since that would have been the biggest war in memory at that time, so here we go. Besides, it would be pretty badass to train riflery to this music.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg




Stuff I like but I don't really feel I can add:

I really love The Animals' "House Of The Rising Sun", but since it really doesn't have anything to do in terms of theme or subject matter with Vietnam (unless someone can tell me different) I feel I can't put it on the playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdPQp6Jcdk


Likewise, somehow I feel that the Van Morrision "Brown Eyed Girl" somehow belongs, but damn if it doesn't seem to have anything to do at all with the Vietnam War.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG8Ect3Xn7w


I also felt like Bryan Adams - Summer of '69 has hilarious potential to be misconstrued as having to do with Vietnam, but we all know that it doesn't really, and plus it's chronologically later. I don't feel I can put it in the playlist, but someone should use it in a Vietnam War video game or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFjjO_lhf9c

Actually, in my opinion, "Summer of '69" should be the offical theme song of "Gone Native", one of the most badass Vietnam War memoirs ever. I don't think anyone had as much fun doing dangerous LRRPs, having weapons malfunctions while trying to escape from the enemy, getting into fights with hippies at the airport, and getting peed on by a NVA as the author, Alan Cornett. If you haven't read the book, you really ought to: http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Native-Story-Al...5375&sr=8-1



Runner Up:

Joan Baez - Blowing In The Wind (It's about 'Nam, and it's the right time period, and it would be GREAT music for slow fire, but with the rest of this play list I feel like it would just be too weird to hear it after all the other high-energy music. It could be cool music for shooting, but you'd need to assemble a whole playlist of weepy protest music to go with it. Which would be a cool project, actually, come to think about it...the protest music slow fire playlist.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvkhzkS4bw

Simon and Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair (This song is ABSOLUTELY BADASS, and it has Vietnam-explicit chorus lyrics, like 'a soldier cleans and polishes a gun'. Part of me thinks it could work really well on the playlist, but another part of me thinks it's like 'Blowing In The Wind'...it would be a ferocious and badass song for slow fire, but I'm not sure it would go with the other songs in the playlist for if you were practicing other skills or doing some timed sporting event.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYQaD2CAi9A



I am anxious to hear about any recommendations or additions to the Vietnam War playlist!

Really? I always attributed it to massive amounts of psychoactive pharmaceuticals.


No such luck. Not only does it predate the Vietnam War (and the Great Patriotic War, for that matter—possibly even the Great War), it's about an American doing American things in America.

~J

Probably inappropriate due to both sound and subject matter, but the first song that popped into my head (purely because it was the theme for China Beach) is "Reflections" by Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Mmm, Dana Delany. If anybody wants me, I'll be in my bunk.

Ha ha, I figured not, House Of The Rising Sun being a folk song.

The video game, Conflict: Vietnam, featured White Rabbit amidst a surrealistic and distorted US military encampment. I figured it must have had some kind of thematic resonance with drug use in the war, or at least some people took it that way.

"Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Brothers Under the Bridge" by Bruce Springsteen
"The Call Up" by The Clash
"Compulsory Hero" by 1927
"Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle
"Civil War" by Guns N Roses
"Disposable Heroes" by Metallica
"Draft Dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs
"Draft Resister" by Steppenwolf
"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield
"Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Front Line" by Stevie Wonder
"Goodnight Saigon" by Billy Joel
"Khe Sanh" by Cold Chisel
"Monster" by Steppenwolf
"People, Let's Stop the War" by Grand Funk Railroad
"Sky Pilot", written by Eric Burdon, recorded by The Animals
"Still in Saigon" by the Charlie Daniels Band
"Unknown Soldier" by The Doors
"Where Are You Now, My Son?" by Joan Baez

Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner

A look through the Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam, etc. soundtracks should offer some good results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Vietnam_War_films

Bye
Thanee

Hey, look what I found. I never heard this one before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urtiyp-G6jY

I've been going through YouTube and listening to all these titles. This is pretty much the slow fire playlist right here!

I'm expecting the rifle kit and stripped lower reciever to arrive tomorrow. I'll be excited to see if my A1 surplus hand guards will fit on the A2 barrel or not. I'll need to get a flash drive type MP3 player to load all these songs onto.