Album: 1975Avg rating:
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Total ratings: 1335
Length: 3:30
Plays (last 30 days): 5
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Just by doing the twist?
At the moment the bomb went off,
They were playing Purple Haze
I met Robert at his restaurant,
Septième arrondissement
The Doors still echo in the jungle.
He said, Your mother brought back 45s from Paris in '65
and we learned ʼem note for note.
Some broken English Rolling Stones
Fenders, girls, and dope
America provides
Oh, Saigon teens...
Can you give the world a twist
Just by doing the twist?
Can you save the world with acid rock?
I didn't know my mother's maiden name
That time in Texas when we was detained
And I've been back to old Saigon
But how much of you is lost
When they change your name?
Oh, Saigon teens...
And it was half a world away
The band got back on stage
Four decades to the day
Purple Haze
"...we’d fly through the jungle in helicopters piled with drugs and prostitutes and then the Vietcong would be shooting at us and then we’d go play Hendrix and The Doors in the jungle for these American G.I.s.”
Sounds like a scene that should have been in Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket...
Genre? Hard to pin this one down!
Album 1979. Released 2021. ??
No, 1975. Released 2021.
This song sounds current, not almost 50 years old.
Lyrics are suited to the era, but the sound is 'modern'.
Impressive.
c.
Pretty sure its the album name and not the date it hit the shelves.
Lyrics are suited to the era, but the sound is 'modern'.
Impressive.
c.
Very cool
Fits well with an excellent book I just read: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
An obscure aside:
The original No-No Boy is a book by John Okada.
No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life “no-no boys.” Yamada answered “no” twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States.
Fits well with an excellent book I just read: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
JW:
Julian, my favorite song on the album is “Imperial Twist,” which is set
in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Can you tell me about that song?
There’s just so much to unpack and chew on in there.
JS: It all started with a visit to a restaurant in Paris. This is where most of my family went after the war. They were refugees in France – that’s a long colonial history. But I’m talking to this old high school friend of my mom’s, Robert Vifian, this very French Vietnamese guy. I just wanted to know about what it was like growing up in Saigon because, like I said, it was a hard story to tell from my mom’s perspective.
And he started talking about how he was in a band. And automatically I lit up. This is how I relate to history. I’ve got to know what songs were being played, what bands were popular. That’s how I have a way in. And he says, “Yeah, we were playing American music for the Americans. Rock and roll because they wanted bands to dance to and listen to. And so they’d buy us instruments and we’d form bands and we’d fly through the jungle in helicopters piled with drugs and prostitutes and then the Vietcong would be shooting at us and then we’d go play Hendrix and The Doors in the jungle for these American G.I.s.”
It just lit me on fire, man. A history never came alive so much as when Robert recounted that story, and I had to pass that along. And then that started a whole excavation, a process of discovery [for me], of all these Southeast Asian rock bands who were just incredible, who made a few scant recordings and they’re in a few compilations. It became some of my favorite music ever.
1975? Wow, way ahead of their time. Maybe he grew up and became No-Man?
The album is titled 1975. It was released in 2021.
Solid 8.
