it's deja vu all over again

Click once or twice.
Stop the war immediately.

Poster of February 1968 Winterland & Filmore concert in San Francisco with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, and Albert King. Artist: Rick Griffin.

When this song, by the disco star Freda Payne, was released in the midst of the Vietnam War and became a hit on U.S. radio stations, Armed Forces Radio Network banned it and wouldn't broadcast it.

You expect folksingers to sing anti-war songs, not disco singers. And you don't expect Country & Western singers to make anti-war noise, either.

When the war's sucky enough, Polka Bands start singing anti-war songs.

Remember any good pro-war songs from Vietnam? Anyone been singing any good pro-war songs about Iraq? Leave a Comment.

It took 5 or 6 minutes to spray-paint the text. Try not to get caught. If you get caught, plead Not Guilty and demand a jury trial. Make as much media noise as you can. Grafitti all over town, grafitti all over C-Space, grafitti text messages, grafitti on cell phones and iPods.

Make the prosecutor look like a psycho right-wing war freakazoid. If there've been shootings and rapes and armed robberies in town, ask the TV news why the prosecutor is wasting time on you. Call up the radio shows late at night, talk about the war. College radio stations are best.

~ ~ ~

BRING THE BOYS HOME
1971
sung by Freda Payne
composer: General Johnson

Fathers are pleading,
lovers are all alone
Mothers are praying --
send our sons back home

You marched them away -- yes, you did --
on ships and planes
To the senseless war,
facing death in vain

Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)

Turn the ships around,
lay your weapons down

Can't you see 'em marchin' 'cross the sky,
All the soldiers that have died
Tryin' to get home --
can't you see them tryin' to get home?
Tryin' to get home --
they're tryin' to get home

Seesaw fire on the battlefield
Enough men have already been wounded or killed
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)

why don't you
Turn the ships around,
lay your weapons down

Mothers, fathers and lovers,
can't you see them?
Oooh, oooh ... Tryin' to get home --
can't you see them
tryin' to get home?
Oooh, oooh ... Tryin' to get home --
they're tryin' to get home

Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home
(bring 'em back alive)

What they doing over there, now
(bring 'em back alive)
When we need them over here, now
(bring 'em back alive)
What they doing over there, now
(bring 'em back alive)
When we need them over here, now
(bring 'em back alive)