Memorial Day 2024
Memorial Day is not about celebrating. Sure we have barbecues and people will go to baseball games and watch parades in their hometowns but it really isn’t about celebrating. It should be about paying tribute to the men and women who gave their lives in defense of democracy.
People forget that sometimes but over 1.3 million American soldiers have died in battle and while we aren’t actually fighting any wars right now, we are still loosing soldiers in “Hot Zones”.
All for the price of liberty.
You can argue that a lot of these men and women died for no reason or for things no one believed in, the fact remains they gave their lives in service to this country.
Maybe I am in the minority here but an 18 or 19 year olds death is important regardless if it was in Anzio Italy or on the Ho Che Min Trail.
We should honor every single one of them.
Since it’s Friday and I like to try and give my readers some music to revisit or explore for the first time, I am going to try and do some serious digging and come up with some music to honor the day.
Considering that most artists are left wing liberals who dodged the draft and fought any and every war we have ever fought it won’t be easy. This list will be short and some of these songs are not uplifting but they do reflect a feeling towards the people we have lost.
The Vietnam War was an American Tragedy and the music that reflected that time is more tragic than celebratory but that is what happens when a country fights an extremely unpopular war.
Billy Joel’s Vietnam anthem,”Goodnight Saigon” stands out as showing the respect he has for those that fought there. No judgements here just a great song that he has performed at every show he has done since the song was released in 1983. He will bring veterans from Vietnam up on stage to sing the chorus and it will always bring tears and goosebumps to anyone at the show.
“Sky Pilot” by Eric Burden and The Animals is another one of those songs that is not really celebrating the war but just telling a story of time during the Vietnam War. The narrator is a priest and he is giving his soldiers his blessings before they go off to battle. He knows many won’t come back but he wants them to know that they all have God’s love no matter what they do in battle. A tremendously moving song that has zero judgements in it.
In my interpretation of the The Doors “Unknown Soldier” Morrison is just bluntly honoring those that died. People at home during Vietnam would be reading their morning papers and seeing the numbers of casualties and not realizing that these men and women were someones child or brother or sister. They were unknown soldiers to America.
Possibly the best song ever written about soldiers and their sacrifice is “American Soldier” by Toby Keith. I normally don’t put too many Country Songs in my columns but this one just stuck out and if you listen to the song and it’s lyrics you will understand why Country music is by far the most patriotic form of music there is. He is proud to be an American, proud to be an American Soldier.