Credited on the record as Il Contemporaneo.
Questo è il nostro Vietnam
1971 · pläne S 88 101 · Modena, Italy
- Artist
- Canzoniere Il Contemporaneo
- Credited on the record as
- Il Contemporaneo
- Title
- Questo è il nostro Vietnam
- Release
- Zeitgenossen
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- pläne # S 88 101
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- Modena, Italy
- Songwriter
- Il Contemporaneo
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Italian Folk Music
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Lyrics
English: The fact that my boss / Accumulates money / Is nothing new; / But it’s the system he employs / That makes me protest, / And it’s the methods he uses / That make me hate him. // Naturally, / His primary means / Is to exploit me. / He claims that without him, / We wouldn’t be able to work, / And that where socialism exists, / There isn’t even enough to eat. // When I sit down / At my workstation, / My personality shifts; / I forget reality entirely / And transform into a cog— / I set my brain aside, / For what use is it to me now, anyway? // It’s worth noting / That the average Italian / Lets himself be easily fooled. / If you ask for a raise— / Fifty lire an hour— / The boss says, 'Sure, I’ll give it to you, / Just keep on working.' // On television, / They’re always showing us / How productivity is growing, / Yet wages remain the same / And the gains go to the bosses; / After all, the Italian people / Live on love and songs. // The other morning, / We went on strike— / All activity came to a halt. / From his balcony, / The boss watched us and counted us, / Pen and paper in hand; / Everyone was there, and we were singing: // 'We must create,' / Wrote Che Guevara, / 'Two, three, many Vietnams.' / This is our Vietnam, / This is our struggle. / You who are listening— / Join the fight yourselves. // Create / Two, three, many Vietnams— / Against NATO, / Two, three, many Vietnams— / Against a class-based school system, / Two, three, many Vietnams— / For the labor…
Notes
Pläne S 88 101, "serie SIEG No. 1", recorded in West Berlin, with an 8-page German lyric booklet; 1971 (Meschiari, 2003). Track B5. The group's own studio recording of the song heard live on the 2. Festival des politischen Liedes LP.
About the artist
Canzoniere Il Contemporaneo — political folk group from Modena, active 1967–1979 (Lara Malagoli, Sauro Malagoli, Willer Varini, Velasques Varieni). [Source: Meschiari, Canzoniere Il Contemporaneo 1967-1979, 2003]
Themes
Anti-War · Anti-American · Anti-Capitalism · Anti-Imperialism · Che Guevara · Protest · Vietnam Analogy
From the release Zeitgenossen
In collections
European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Vietnam as Comparison