Music does so many things; it can move one to tears, pump someone up for a competition, and remind one of the good old days. With the explosion of technology of streaming and iPods, the ability to throw on whatever song suits the mood can be taken for granted. But the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War didn’t take their music for granted. For many, it was the only connection they had with home in the growing insanity they were trapped in.
Doug Bradley and Craig Werner, authors of We Gotta Get Outta this Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War will be at Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St., at 7 p.m. today discussing their book on the role music played for soldiers during the war and in recovery processes afterwards. Bradley is a Vietnam veteran and has written extensively on the war. Werner is a professor of Afro-American Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“We talked to some 300-odd veterans of the Vietnam war … we talked to them about what music meant to them in Vietnam and the role music played in their lives when they returned to the United States,” Werner said. “Music served three basic roles: It provided a lifeline back to the world they’d left behind, connections with girlfriends or family. Second, it was the glue that held the unit together. Third, music played a role in helping soldiers make sense of the chaos.”
Their research found that even after the war, music remained important to veterans. A large number of them went on to become musicians themselves. But almost all of them used music in their healing process.
Since the book’s release, Werner has been pleased by veterans’ responses.
“It provides a forum for vets in the audience to share their stories,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of times that people have come up to us afterwards and say that it was the first time they had been able to publicly talk about their experience.”
Bradley said this type of opening up is what inspired them to write the book.
“During a Christmas party at the Madison Vet Center in 2004, the two of us were talking about the music of that era, and soon we noticed that a bunch of vets were crowding around, volunteering their own songs and stories,” he said in an email. “It was then we realized that Vietnam vets were able to talk about a song that has stayed with them, and in that telling, they began to unload some of the pain and resentment they’ve had to carry around.”
While many soldiers were unhappy with their situations, their music choice was not about protesting, as many Stateside were. Instead, the soldiers focused on songs about emotional connections.
“Perhaps the most striking discovery was that while Vietnam vets were aware of pro- and antiwar songs and protest music, the songs that really stuck with them were ones about homesickness, loneliness, and missing their wives or girlfriends,” Bradley said. “Songs like ‘My Girl,’ ‘Dock of the Bay,’ ‘Detroit City,’ and ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ came up over and over again.”
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We Gotta Get Outta this Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War with Doug Bradley and Craig Werner
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque
Admission: Free