Kris Kristofferson - Vietnam blues (1993) video free download


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Duration: 03:33
Uploaded: 2011/07/15

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Kris Kristofferson - His life and work (1993)

Kris talking about Vietnam Blues and his attitude to Vietnam

"It's up to anybody who does have the information to try to pass it on..."

This is an amazing and interesting documentary about Kris's life and his songwriting, performing and acting career, including interviews with Kris, Fred Foster, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dennis Hopper, Michael Cimino, Joan Baez, Alan Rudolp, Harry Dean Stanton, Jackson Browne and others. Kris sings a couple of unplugged songs. One of the most exciting moments to me: when he shows us around some important places in Nashville and comes to the place where he 'd live and where he stumbled down the stairs to meet the day ... Just amazing...

http://www.amazon.com/Kris-Kristofferson-His-Life-Work/dp/B0009WIE16

http://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Life-Work-Region-NTSC/dp/B0009WIE16

Kris about Vietnam Blues, " I'm not embarrassed about that song... but ...my own feelings about Vietnam turned 180 degrees. But I still felt, at the time, that all my friends were over there. And it wasn't their fault that they were over there. But I come to believe that it was a tremendous mistake for our government to be over there and that the things that we were doing were inhuman."

Vietnam Blues

(Kris was still in the army in Germany when he wrote that song in about 1965)

I was on leave at the time, just duckin' the fog,

nosin' around like a hungry dog

in that crazy place called Washington, D.C.

I saw a crowd of people on the White House lawn

all carrying signs about Vietnam,

so I went on over to see what I could see.

They was a strange-looking bunch.

But I never did understand civilians.

A fellow came to me with a list in his hand.

"We're gatherin' names to send a telegram of sympathy."

Then he handed me a pen.

I said, "I reckon this is goin' to the children and wives

of my friends over there who've given their lives."

He says, "Uh-uh, buddy, this is goin' to Ho Chi Minh."

I said, "Ho Chi who?"

He said, "Ho Chi Minh, People's Leader, North Vietnam."

Well, I wasn't real sure I was hearin' him right.

But I thought we'd better remove before we got in a fight

because my eyes were smartin', and my pulse started hitting a lick.

I thought about another telegram I'd read

tellin' my buddy's wife that her husband was dead.

It wasn't too long till I was feelin' downright sick.

Another held the sign that said 'We won't fight.'

And I thought to myself, 'You got that right.

You'd rather let a soldier die instead.'

I said, "You ever stop to think

that every man who died there in that far-off land

was dyin' so that you won't wake up dead?"

Of course, he looked at me like I was crazy,

just another warmonger.

Well, I left that place and went to town

and hit the first bar that I found to cool myself and pacify my brain.

See, I was on orders back to Vietnam, to a little place just north of Saigon,

and I had about an hour to catch my plane.

So, all I mean to say is, 'I don't like dyin' either.

But I care about the way I live.'

Comments

9 years ago

Greg Taylor

Tuco 11 why dont you try listening to his music and not be so aggressive dude. Leave that shit where it belongs.

9 years ago

Gerry Heldt

Kris stood up for the Vietnam vets and then when too many of his friends flipped over to support North Vietnam (Hanoi Jane, etc.), he went that direction too. It was the hip, progressive thing to do. He didn't just protest against the war, he supported North Vietnam while our guys were being killed. 

9 years ago

zeeras1

Thanks Kris... it takes a real man to speak honesty. God bless

9 years ago

D Storm

Well, we were all against the war the way it was fought. What WW II general wouldn't want to bomb Hanoi early and mine Haiphong early and simply engage in total war with a goal of unconditional victory as in WW II? But, since WW II, America has never waged total war. Limited wars like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan merely limit your chance to win. 

10 years ago

MrBowdallen

Yeah you're right you will keep living in this dreamland that the Vietnam war wasn't a huge mistake.

10 years ago

Tuco II

You are stupid beyond belief. Nam Vets have a saying that: 'What most people know about the Vietnam War they learned from Hollywood." In your case, make that Disneyland or perhaps the Kremlin. "Invade a land that mainly didn't want you..." My God, that's so far beyond blithering it's comical. That said, you aren't worth educating. No penetrating that tinfoil hat. I'm done with you. -- OUT --

10 years ago

MrBowdallen

And you prefer the version in that you didn't invade a land that mainly didn't want you, and kill civilians more then in just My Lai many instances where soldiers in the US army had killed civilians for no reason, There was no VC in My Lai none it was civilians

10 years ago

Tuco II

As a Purple Heart Combat Veteran of the Tet Offensive Campaign (1968-69) I will offer that I have found precious few books that aren't sensationalized, exaggerated and outright fictitious stories geared for selling books, not historical accuracy. Again, most of the combat was against un-uniformed soldiers (VC). We had a 6 year old boy roll a grenade under a jeep full of US troops. They shot him. Headline: BABY KILLERS STRIKE AGAIN! Just so sick of the bullshit. Get us out of the UN = stay home.

10 years ago

Tuco II

I've never said anything that would suggest I don't think it was wrong and bad. But Mai Lai was as incidental as it was horrible. What I object to in the strongest terms is anyone equating those stressed-out 'boy next door' troops with Nazis, the SS and especially the VC and NVA. Unless you've walked in their combat boots, found your friends torture-mutilated by that 'civilian' enemy, seen those "pile of little arms," you're not qualified to pass judgement on them. Not excusing, just clarifying.

10 years ago

biggestkkfan

Just google Tiger Force or Operation Speedy Express...

10 years ago

biggestkkfan

if you read about it (I recommend the book "War Without Fronts:The USA in Vietnam" by Bernd Greiner) you'll learn that it wasn't a single or rare event. Thousands of civilians were killed that way, not because they were fighting in the war, but just because they were Vietnamese. I am interested in the truth about what was going on there and I must admitt I haven't yet found the answer to what at all the Americans were doing so far away from their homes in Vietnam?? To protect their freedom???

10 years ago

biggestkkfan

Actually, before I commented I had searched the internet again to read about that massacre again. And I also read about the circumstances the American soldiers had been in, their anger and dispair because they often couldn't recognize who and where was their enemy. But, that does not at all justify the killing of children and babies and other civilians. And you can't talk it right, it was wrong and bad.

10 years ago

Tuco II

The "something bad" you reference would have to be the United Nations. It was the UN that drew the line, Commies to the north, Republic of VN to the south. Guess who ended up bearing the lion's share of effort to repel the invasion from the North? Same as Korea, only there the US was permitted to win and just a couple of decades later they're selling us cars. So I do heartily agree with you -- the US should withdraw from the UN. No more 'cops of the world' for the for that corrupt assembly.

10 years ago

Tuco II

You obviously know nothing of the circumstances that attributed to the Mai Lai massacre. Do you even realize that most US casualties in that war were at the hands of combatants in civilian garb? The SS acted with full approval of higher authority -- Mai Lia was prosecuted by higher authority. Your armchair quarterbacking and hindsight is miles off target, even to the extent of presuming someone "ordered" the massacre. The truth is knowable, but apparently you aren't interested in that.

10 years ago

Tuco II

MrBowdallen, you are so full of shit it's hardly worth wasting the finger movement on you. Mai Lai was an atrocity largely attributable to that unit taking casualties from un-uniformed VC. Men snapped. It was a rare and singular event. On the other hand, the VC and NVA practiced atrocities on a daily basis as an approved military tactic. You attempts to equivocate the two sides is grotesquely insulting and stupid on its face. You prefer the Hollywood version to the truth, and that's despicable.

10 years ago

MrBowdallen

Almost no one was charged for it in the case of the My Lai massacre i know that, the officer who gave the order got like 3 years of house arrest or something and most of the soldiers got nothing but yeah it's very relate-able to war crimes committed in WWII

10 years ago

MrBowdallen

You did just the same, please to call me a libtard i'm not either, i didn't even bring up that lyric i was just saying you said that everything bad in the war occurred because of the other side, you said that that was "them" and "we" were the good guys well, no not always.

10 years ago

biggestkkfan

I wanted to make this video here private already some time ago, but probably did not because I don't wanna make people angry who have embedded it already. Just click on the message on the video when it appears, it's a link. I'm adding the link to the info box as well. Thank you.

10 years ago

Root Doc

I'm thinking about giving it some air play Monday,where's the better upload?

10 years ago

Tuco II

And isn't it cute how libtards like you can lay a collective guild on "you guys" without without even considering the fact that it was the military that reported, investigated and prosecuted those responsible for that atrocity. But Nam Vets are accustomed to such broad brush nitwittery, so proceed along with you miserable little uninformed ovine life and dismiss the FACT that the "pile of little arms" referenced in "Apocalypse Now" was real and not all that uncommon. Equivocation: FAIL.

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