Overview

For a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam's Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. For a tunnel rat who blew smoke into the Viet Cong's underground tunnels, it was Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., it was Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools. And for countless other Vietnam vets, it was I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die, Who'll Stop the Rain, or the song that gives this book its title. In We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. They explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans--black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and grunts--whose personal reflections drive the book's narrative.

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9781665266314

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Reviews

Doug Bradley and Craig Werner's account of music's connection to the Vietnam War is intimate and deeply informative, with a scope that encompasses both the war itself and the way that music has helped raise awareness of veterans' issues long after its end. . . . Nuanced and frequently moving.-- Rolling Stone

Author Information

Doug Bradley, a Vietnam veteran, teaches a course on the war with Craig Werner, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul. Craig Werner is a cultural historian whose books include Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival; Higher Ground: Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul; and A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America. Werner is a member of the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he chairs the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A native of Colorado Springs, he was a member of a rock band that often played for GIs stationed at Fort Carson. Sean Runnette, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has also directed and produced more than two hundred audiobooks, including several Audie Award winners. He is a member of the American Repertory Theater company and has toured the United States and internationally with ART and Mabou Mines. His television and film appearances include Two If by Sea, Cop Land, Sex and the City, Law & Order, the award-winning film Easter, and numerous commercials.

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