For anyone who has spent anytime in the service of their country, particularly in conflict zones, there will usually be specific songs or music that recall the experience or relate to it. When I was younger and began looking at joining up in a more serious light, I began watching the popular war movies of the day.
Generally speaking, I’d seen most of the WW2 classics that my father had been fond of when I was a kid, but very few of these had songs or memorable music. For me, it was the profusion of Vietnam films that first provided war and conflict with a soundtrack. Particularly when I was at the age where I was preparing to sign on the dotted line and had a renewed interest in all things military.
On the eve of heading down to Lympstone to attend the Potential Recruit’s Course, my friend and I watched Full Metal Jacket. I still rate it as a superb piece of work but taking the cinematic accomplishments aside, it was also one of the first war movies where I really paid attention to the music. I noticed that the music that accompanied the scenes added something different compared to other movies I’d seen. Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These boots are made for walking’ played over the scene of a Vietnamese prostitute approaching the soldiers as they are robbed by locals on a moped. Or The Trashmen’s ‘Surfin’ Bird’, played on a radio in the background and then as part of the soundtrack proper as the platoon are interviewed as they are deploying to Phu Bai.
The next major movie of note that I would have to say really utilised a soundtrack to augment the film was the classic Platoon, the big screen adaptation of Oliver North’s account of his experiences as a young grunt thrown into the chaos of an ill-understood war fought by a largely conscripted army. The music used in Platoon was, in my opinion, the first time the significance of the soundtrack in augmenting a war movie was really put into effect. From Smokey Robinson’s ‘Tracks of my tears’ to the haunting ‘Adagio for strings’ that accompanies the scene where Sgt Elias is killed, the music was clearly well-thought out.
So, to that end, here are 10 songs relating to war and conflict that, over the years, I find myself being drawn back to again and again for either their impact or the memories that they invoke.
Copperhead Road by Steve Earle
I really can’t remember where I first heard this but it is a real favourite for me. Earle’s growling vocals and the mandolin riff that morphs into the signature blues-rock narrating the tale of a redneck boy and his journey from white trash to Vietnam vet to drug smuggler.
‘…now the DEA’s got a chopper in the air, I wake up screaming like I’m back over there,
I learned a thing or two from Charlie don’t you know, you better stay away from Copperhead Road…‘
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEJzoaYZk
Soldier by Harvey Andrews (sometimes called A British Soldier)
Based upon the heroic actions of Sgt Willets of 3 Para in Northern Ireland in 1971, the folk-singer Harvey Andrews was so moved by Willets’ selfless bravery that he felt compelled to write a song that told the story of the soldier. The song is well-known by service personnel and held in high regard for both its poignancy and the rarity of recognition for the conditions that the forces endured during the Northern Ireland conflict.
‘…then came the call to Ireland as the call had come before, Another bloody chapter in an endless civil war,
the soldiers stood between them, between the whistling stones, and then the broken bottles that led to broken bones..’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKZQyv6X4JI
Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel
Almost something of an unofficial Australian anthem this is another cracker of a tune that grabs you right from the first line. The legacy of the Vietnam war on the veteran and his problems in coping with life on his return are laid bare through the gruff vocals and brilliant piano/guitar accompaniment.
‘…I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh, And my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the black market man,
I’ve had Vietnam cold turkey, from the ocean to the silver city, and it’s only other vets could understand…‘
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTjvG4WJD_A
Travelling Soldier by The Dixie Chicks
At the height of their popularity, The Dixie Chicks made a very public statement attacking the decision of the Bush administration to take their country to war again with Iraq. Their music was immediately boycotted by many radio stations in the US and with several major retail chains refusing to stock their music, their career tanked badly. From multi-million sales to a slack handful over the course of a year. They always insisted that they fully supported the US Military but took issue with the government’s foreign policy decision. They wrote Travelling Soldier as a rebuttal to the boycott and as a demonstration of their commitment to the US Armed Forces.
‘…so the letters came from an Army camp, in California then Vietnam, and he told her of his heart, it might be love and all of the things he was so scared of…
he said when it’s getting kind of rough over here, I think of that day sitting down at the pier, and I close my eyes and see your pretty smile, don’t worry but I won’t be able to write for a while…‘
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbfgxznPmZM
When the Tigers broke free by Pink Floyd
An unusual one, but then nothing that Pink Floyd produced was ever going to be pedestrian. Roger Waters penned the song in commemoration of his father, Eric Fletcher Waters who was killed during the battle of Anzio in 1944. The song is a short but intense piece made all the more atmospheric by martial score and the backing vocals of choir.
from the Royal Fusiliers Company Z,
‘…I can’t remember anything, can’t tell if this is true or dream, deep down inside I feel to scream, this terrible silence stops me,
Now that the war is through with me, I’m waking up, I cannot see that there’s not much left of me, nothing is real but pain now…’
