The Great Prawn War

Annotation

Double-LP of political songs and poetry, released in 1982 by the Amalgamated Metal Workers & Shipwrights Union , on Larrikin Records (# LRF2053), the record label founded by folk collector and performer Warren Fahey . This contained three anti-war tracks related to Vietnam. This included the song "F111" , performed by the The Larrikins, and composed by Lyell Sayer , who recorded his own version, discussed immediately below. The other two tracks are poems, by Denis Kevans (15 January 1939–2005), from Canberra, Australia. The first was "The Great Prawn War" . The second title was the "Slouch of Vietnam" , said to have been published and set to music in 1962, before Australia's major troop commitment in 1965, according to Kevans. The poem was recited at anti-war demonstrations in the 1960s/70s. Both poems mentioned featured in his 1982 book The Great Prawn War and Other Poems . A slouch hat, also known as Aussie bush hat is a distinctive Australian hat that has one side of the brim turned up or pinned to the side of the hat, often used in the military. The poem recalled previous wars: "far-off fields of Flanders... brave Gallipoli" . However, these were different from the Vietnam conflict: "why should I share the napalm-guilt of blundering Uncle Sam" - a reference to chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973. The narrator noted "peasant kids, who fight for rights and rice" , thus arguing that the war was unjustified, and that the North Vietnamese were fighting for independence. The poem also contained the line "blinded the diggers' eyes" . Digger is a military slang term for soldiers from Australia and New Zealand, which came to prominence during World War One, although some sources indicate it may have been used since the 1850s. Digger probably originally referred to a miner - extensive research has been conducted on the etymology of the term and its introduction into military terminology.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Poem; last part of the medley on side C, track 1. Published in The Great Prawn War and Other Poems (1982).

About the artist

Denis Kevans (15 January 1939 - 2005) - poet from Canberra, ACT, active in the 1960s-70s protest movement.

Themes

Anti-War · Satire

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs