Saigon Warrior

Annotation — Australian & New Zealand Songs

The ultimate Vietnam War compilation, released by Bear Family Records, it includes 13 discs, 334 tracks, and a 304 page booklet. In fact you can spend 16 hours and 49 minutes listening to Vietnam War songs if you like. Hugo Keesing, a popular music collector and teacher (formerly at the University of Maryland) produced the compilation, and help to find, select, and evaluate most the songs included - his personal collection of Vietnam War songs stretches into the thousands. Also see The Keesing Collection on Popular Music and Culture.1 It is split into various themes, such as veterans, the patriotic, the draft, the protest movement, the plight of the soldiers etc. The compilation included a few songs from Australia. One of those is particularly significant - "Saigon Warrior" performed by Maggie, an unknown Australian artist, recorded in-country during the war - one of the rare female performances from the Vietnam War. According to the article "Songs of the Vietnam War: An Occupational Folklore Tradition", by Dr. Les Cleveland (1986)1: According to the 1991 compilation In Country: Folk Songs of Americans in the Vietnam War, compiled Lydia Fish, which featured a version by US veteran Saul Broudy: A song called "Saigon Warrior" (Broudy 1969) sung to the tune of "Sweet Betsy From Pike" is a variant of a World War 2 composition which could be used to complain about base camps, training establishments, or headquarters anywhere in the world. For instance, a version sung in the New Zealand Army during World War 2 (and still in circulation in 1986) was entitled "Waiouru's a Wonderful Place"... The "Saigon Warrior" variant of this song collected in Vietnam by Broudy... Broudy states that the text was transcribed from a tape-recorded performance by Maggie, an Australian woman. This suggests that it may either have been part of some Australian-inspired entertainment, or it may have originated with the ANZAC forces in Vietnam. Dinky dau is a corruption of the Vietnamese die cai dau, literally sick the head, hence, meaning crazy. This makes no sense unless it is related to a traditional Australian folk ballad, current in World War 1 and 2, entitled "The Lousy Lance-Corporal" (Cleveland 1959, 1961, 1975, 1982; Tate 1982) which makes repetitive use of the expression "dinky die" as a chorus. This is a slang term meaning truly, emphatically, indisputablyThere are many military folksongs about rear echelon personnel. This one is descended from a British Army World War I song entitled "The Lousy Lance-Corporal." It circulated widely in Southeast Asia in both Army and Air Force tradition. It was sung by an Australian woman named Maggie as part of a song competition which provided the entertainment at a commanders' conference held at the Nha Trang headquarters of the 17th Aviation Group, in April, 1967. A tape of the concert was given to Saul Broudy by helicopter pilot and singer Gene Easley, who was later killed in action. (2)Sources1University of Maryland Libraries: Hugo Keesing collection on popular music and culture (finding aid)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Disc 7, track 6 of the 13-CD box (Germany, 2010; produced by Hugo Keesing). Recorded in-country in April 1967 from a tape given to Saul Broudy by the pilot Gene Easley; one of the rare female performances from the war. To the tune of "Sweet Betsy From Pike"; a variant of "The Lousy Lance-Corporal".

About the artist

Maggie - Australian singer, otherwise unidentified, recorded at a song competition at the 17th Aviation Group headquarters, Nha Trang, April 1967.

Themes

Soldier's Perspective · Satire · Saigon · Military · In Country

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs