Black Fighting Men in Vietnam

Artist: Black Fighting Men Recorded Live In Vietnam

LP: Guess Who's Coming Home

Side One

[ listen ]

Side Two

[ listen ]

Guess Who's Coming Home. It isn't Sidney Poitier. Here's a different sort of Motown Sound from 1972 that I found at Daybreak Records a few weeks ago. It's fascinating that the record is presented as a warning to America that thousands of black men who have been trained in combat and who are handy with weapons will soon be returning to the USA and demanding their equality. At the same time, it's depressing to see what little progress in race relations we've made as a country over the past 45 years. We still can't get past the color of peoples' skin when deciding how to treat them, and are basically in the same place now as we were then. 

I was hoping to get this posted on Veteran's Day, but unfortunately I'm a few minutes late. Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have served, putting their lives on the line and into the indelicate hands of those deciding when and where and how the USA will go to war.

Monica Lewis

Artist: Monica Lewis

LP: Sing It to the Marines

Song: "Rough Ridin'"

[ listen ]

After spending the night at the Mar Clair Inn in Tillamook, Oregon, Sarah and I had breakfast at the Dutch Mill Cafe and toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where we enjoyed some refreshing Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream, in waffle cones! We then started our drive northward to Seattle, stopping along the way for refreshing beverages, to dip our toes in the ocean, or to hunt for hidden treasures at thrift and antique stores along Highway 101. The Frugal Crow Vintage Market in the cute little resort town of Rockaway Beach was having a sale; LPs were just $1 each! This marvelous 1957 Monica Lewis record, on which she sings it to the Marines, is one of the things I found there. I can't really think of anything more to add to the immortal words of General Mark Wayne Clark from the LP liner notes: "I'm one Army guy who feels the more Marines I have around, the better I like it. Because Marines are men rarin' to go—men with their tails up." You can read about the life and career of Monica Lewis here, buy a copy of her biography, "Hollywood Through My Eyes," here, 'like' her on Facebook here, and visit her official website here.

 

[ Monica Lewis — A beauty in 1951. ]

[ Monica Lewis — Gorgeous as ever in 2011. ]

 [ The Frugal Crow — Rockaway Beach, OR ]