i met a boy called frank mills on september 12th right here

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i think it's never made explicit, but i've always assumed that we're meant to think frank mills probably got drafted and die in vietnam. if so, this is one of the most poignant and subtle anti-war songs i can think of. nothing overt, just a small glimpse at all the could-have-beens but for the war.

so, for all those who have been sent off to war, i give you "frank mills", from the first rock opera, "hair":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTX_ab66TaM

I met a boy called Frank Mills
On September twelfth right here
In front of the Waverly
But unfortunately
I lost his address

He was last seen with his friend,
A drummer, he resembles George Harrison of the Beatles
But he wears his hair
Tied in a small bow at the back

I love him but it embarrasses me
To walk down the street with him
He lives in Brooklyn somewhere
And wears this white crash helmet

He has gold chains on his leather jacket
And on the back is written the names
Mary
And Mom
And Hell's Angels

I would gratefully
Appreciate it if you see him tell him
I'm in the park with my girlfriend
And please

Tell him Angela and I
Don't want the two dollars back
Just him!

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Yep. Watch this version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wc7w4ogBoY&feature=related

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7. thanks, that sounds like the original broadway version

the video includes a few shots of my babysitter before she became famous (!)

[soleiri]

2. One of my favorites

I just listened to it earlier today.

Sung by the beautiful and perfect, Allison Case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILPSQqWe2uY


As a total broadway geek, I don't like the term Rock Opera, It's a Musical! (Jazz hands!)

I never thought of the song being about Frank Mills going to war. I've always thought it was about two people from different worlds. She falls in love with him despite him being different from her (which embarrasses her) and he, well... we don't know how he feels.

But now that you've posted this, I'll seriously think about it. Of course, even if it's not explicitly stated, all of the songs in Hair are protest songs.
I'm seeing Hair when it comes to La next year. I can't freaking wait.

Did I mention how much I love this song?

[murielm99]

3. I just listened to the CD two days ago.

And it is not something that I listen to all the time.

I had not thought about Frank going off to war. This interpretation is interesting.

I saw "Hair" in Chicago the week it opened there.

[soleiri]

6. Lucky!

Hair is my musical obsession right now.

I pretty much listen to it at least one song from Hair every day, if not more.

I can't wait to see it.

[murielm99]

11. Another great memory from those times:

We were sitting around on my campus one day, and heard, by word of mouth, that Phil Ochs was coming to the McCarthy headquarters to do an impromptu concert that night. I was an RFK supporter, but so what? I wanted to hear Ochs sing.

We all met upstairs in a loft of the old storefront where McCarthy had his headquarters. Ochs showed up and sang an impromptu medley of his songs for about ninety minutes, and encouraged everyone to vote for McCarthy. There were only about thirty people there, and I don't think it even received any publicity after the fact. But it was great to meet him and talk to him.

I wish Ochs had kept his sanity and not died so young. We needed him during the Bush years.

God, I am getting old. Those times are starting to be so vivid for me again. I am also remembering a boy in my life who was very much like Frank Mills. I don't know if he went off to war. I don't know whatever happened to him.

[barbtries]

8. i have the original broadway cast recording

on cassette in my car. my first real date in 1969 was to see Hair at the Aquarius Theater in LA on its first run there.

[pinboy3niner]

4. Thanks for that

It's one I hadn't heard. Some degree of subtlety usually enhances a song, drawing the listener in and inviting him or her to become more involved, to connect the dots to divine the meaning and the moral.

I've collected some antiwar songs, and once made a mix-tape of those about the VN war. I included some unrelated, like Quincy Jones' "Soul Saga" (the Song of the Buffalo Soldier), just because it reminded me of the Black troops I knew in-country. Also Neil Diamond's "America," because its juxtaposition with "Born in the USA" seemed so perfect.

The mix-tape mostly just sits there, because I don't play it very often. I knew more than 60 guys who died in VN, and the tape for me is a trigger for powerful and often conflicting emotions that I'm not always prepared to deal with.

In the mid-'80s, when I opened up on VN after suppressing the experience for 16 years, I met a guy at the counter of a coffee shop who claimed to be a songwriter. When he found out I was a VN vet, he got us a booth, and he interrogated me about my experience for several hours. I'd turned 21 in VN, but one thing I told him was that the average age of U.S. troops arriving there was 19. As I was leaving, he said, "Maybe I'll write a song about this." Several months later, I overhead some vets talking about a new song titled, "19 in Vietnam." It turned out the guy really WAS a songwriter, and an accomplished master guitarist who also toured with Nanci Griffith. His song:


19 in Vietnam
by Pete Kennedy

Well I'm a bushhog scratchin' for a rat underground
in the jungle of the valley A Shau
I gave him 18 rounds and he didn't go down
I'm dealin' with the devil again

I turned 19 in Vietnam
19 in Vietnam

Well we started out thinkin' we were some kind of heroes
Fightin' just like our daddies did
But now the gung-ho crew is very few
and the rest are just frightened kids

I turned 19 in Vietnam
19 in Vietanm

You spend a year in hell feelin' so alone
Seein' more than a kid can bear
Countin' the days 'til they ship you home
But there ain't no welcome there

When you're 19 in Vietnam
19 in Vietnam
And Wond'rin' Why?


The Smithsonian compiled a collection of VN War songs that were created by troops while they were serving in-country, and it includes some VERY good ones. I attended a concert in D.C. that brought together some of those men to perform their work nearly two decades later, and it was a great show. I don't have any links handy, but a simple search should lead to that compilation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Wow. What a neat story and even neater song.

I have one of those mix tapes as well. I added a few newer songs and I made about 50 copies and took them to Camp Casey and gave them away to anyone who asked.

[pinboy3niner]

10. I hadn't thought of giving away copies, but that's a great idea

My mix includes some pretty heavy stuff, and I'd probably want to lighten it up a bit before handing it out, especially to returning OEF/OIF vets (or any vets, for that matter).

Thanks for the idea. With a few changes I can burn it to discs, and I'm good to go.

:hi:

[murielm99]

12. Make sure to include some Phil Ochs on it,

although some of his songs are pretty heavy. "Cops of the World" comes to mind.

[evrstrong]

5. Thanks

I enjoyed that!

evr

[SidDithers]

13. Saw the Broadway revival last November..

and it was fantastic. I was saddened to hear it closed in June.

Hair is one of my faves.

Sid