Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen

[Greeby]

Run time: 03:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byCCmBwRjGw   Posted on YouTube: August 02, 2006 By YouTube Member: raylawlor Views on YouTube: 380598   Posted on DU: February 24, 2007 By DU Member: Greeby Views on DU: 818

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_%28Paul_Hardcastle%29

Nineteen is a track by English musician Paul Hardcastle, released in 1985. The track is about America's involvement in the Vietnam War and the effect it had on the soldiers who served. With a mini-Moog synthesized dance beat, interspersed with slides and LFO-squeezes (or vibratoes), the song features sampled actual news reports from the war and soundbites by its participants. The title Nineteen famously comes from the (disputed) claim the average age of an American combat soldier in the war was nineteen.

For a while Nineteen was the top selling single in thirteen countries, and it received the Ivor Novello award for The Bestselling Single Of 1985. However Hardcastle was later sued by the ABC for copying video and sound clips from an ABC television documentary about post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by veterans, called Vietnam Requiem.-snip-



Don't think I need to explain how this relates to today :(

[provis99]

1. yeah, i remember this depressing video, three things to compare with Iraq

the first that stands out in my mind is that the Iraq war soldiers do seem older; at least, the records of the dead ones indicate lots in their thirties and forties (probably lots of them are dead fathers to young children). Second, while the rich in Vietnam (like Bush) crammed into the National Guard to escape Vietnam, Bush fucked the National Guard in Iraq, sending hordes of them over (well, after all, Chicken Bush isn't in the Guard any more). Third, soldiers in Vietnam usually did only one one-year tour of duty, while Iraq war soldiers are doing three or more in many cases. If Vietnam fucked you up after one year, just imagine how emotionally crippled a soldier will be after three years of constant combat stress.
Fuck you, George Bush!

[Divine Discontent]

3. national guard

getting FU**ED over in Iraq, I am shocked their leader whoever it is isn't going to the news, obv. they're content with their million. My bro is 40 and came back last year from that hellish "war".

[brentspeak]

2. N-n-n-nineteen.

[Up2Late]

4. Oh man, I've been looking for this video for a while. I've got the 45...

...for those of you who don't know what a 45 is, it's a small vinyl record with a big hole in the middle, and it plays on a a Record Player, it's sort of like the big records the club DJ's play...oh never mind.

This "single" version is impossible to find online, I ended up making my own mp3 of it myself.

I couldn't remember if P.H. ever made a video of this, but now I remember the small town parade scene, and for any of you who want to hate on this video, I firmly believe this song and video, and not the Vietnam Vets marching in Indianapolis in about 1982 or 1983, was what finally started most of America talking again about the raw deal the Vietnam Vets got when they came back and nobody wanted to talk about it (Vietnam).

This video was like a sharp stick in the eye of the Reagan Administration in 1985, who were also big on Flag-waving and Patriot talk, yet Reagan and his crowd didn't do Jack-skwat for any of the Homeless Vets until this song re-started the conversation.