>>>..."The Ballad of Penny Evans"...is one of the most haunting acapella
ballads I have >>>ever heard on the Viet Nam war. . . it brings me to tears...
The music must be great because I looked at the lyrics and they seem
mundane. I suppose the context adds meaning because although she refers to
Vietnam once as "that unhappy land" she never says she is opposed to the
Vietnam war per se. She just doesn't like the fact that her husband was
drafted and died.
As a teen-ager in the mid-to-late sixties I was at times confused as to
whether the anti-war movement was anti-war period or anti-Vietnam war.
There was a lot of talk about "Love" and also enthusiasm for
anti-imperialist guerillas. It was only later that I realized that there
were many different groupings within the counter-culture. (I don't even know
if politics fits in that category at all.)
Other kids must have been confused as well because although our
Remembrance Day ceremonies seemed very anti-war I'm sure that all of us were
glad our country had fought in World War II.
Michael Kelemen
Toronto, Canada