Galveston Bay

Annotation — Bruce Springsteen Songs

Also on the album The Ghost of Tom Joad, was the song "Galveston Bay" (Columbia Records # 481650 2) in which Springsteen again returned to the Vietnam veteran theme - however, this time, the main focus was on a 1981 dispute between the KKK and Vietnamese shrimpers - who had arrived in the US as refugees, known as the "Vietnamese boat people", or "boat people", referencing Vietnamese refugees who fled the country following the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975, a migration and humanitarian crisis in the late 70s. 800,000 people are thought to have made it to other countries, via boat, while the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, estimates that between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea.123 This track provides a unique perspective in US songs, with a focus on a South Vietnamese veteran in the US, differing from the typical American-centric view, and containing commentary on the growth of anti-immigration, racist, and an America-first movement. The lyrics focused on a South Vietnamese veteran, Le Bin Son, who fought "side by side with the American in... Vietnam". Following the collapse of Saigon, he fled to Texas, where he became a shrimper. It then switched to the perspective of a US born soldier, Billy Sutter, who was "wounded in the battle of Chu Lai" in 1968. He watched the collapse on TV in 1975, as the "communists rolled into Saigon" and "as the refugees came". However, there was "talk of America for Americans" and someone "brought in the Texas Klan". It led to a confrontation, in which Le killed two people. He was put on trial where he was acquitted, for self-defense. Stutter decided to take vigilante action and go after Le, but at the last minutes decided not to, and the next morning he "cast his nets into the water of Galveston Bay".Sources1Wikipedia: Vietnamese boat people↩2chron.com: Gulf coast↩3popmatters.com: Bruce springsteens search promised land↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: For fifteen years Le Bin Son fought side by side with the Americans In the mountains and deltas of Vietnam In '75 Saigon fell and he left his command And brought his family to the promised land Seabrook, Texas and the small towns in the Gulf of Mexico It was delta country and reminded him of home He worked as a machinist, put his money away and bought a shrimp boat with his cousin And together they harvested Galveston Bay

Notes

Columbia CK 67484, track 11, 5:04; released 21 November 1995. Le Bin Son, a South Vietnamese veteran turned Texas shrimper, and Billy Sutter, a US veteran, on Galveston Bay. [From Discogs]

About the artist

Born Freehold, New Jersey, USA (23 September 1949). Currently Rumson, New Jersey.

Themes

Vet · Refugees · South Vietnamese · KKK · Anti-Asian Racism · Fall of Saigon

In collections

Bruce Springsteen Songs · Vietnamese Refugees & Boat People