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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 01:21 AM
Original message
Three-five-zero-zero.
We have reached another milestone in another senseless war. At this point in the Vietnam war the same number of casualties was bemoaned in the Broadway musical, Hair:

Ripped open by metal explosion
Caught in barbed wire; fireball, bullet shock
Bayonet, electricity, shrapnel, throbbing meat
Electronic data processing
Black uniforms, bare feet, carbines
Mail order rifles shoot the muscles
256 Viet Cong captured...
256 Viet Cong captured...

(first time whispered)

Prisoners in N***ertown
It's a dirty little war
Three-five-zero-zero
Take weapons up and begin to kill
Watch the long long armies drifting home...

http://cmhair.monblogue.branchez-vous.com/


I still can't believe I'm seeing this exact same thing happen twice in my lifetime.
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rawtribe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 02:13 AM
Response to Original message
1. G-W-B
took the P-N-AC
down to 4th St. U-S-Aaaaa
when he got there what did he see?

The youth of America on

XTC


:smoke:
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 02:20 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Peace, brother.
It's still a good idea. :hippie:
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rawtribe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 02:38 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. It's Easy To Be Hard!

:hi:

I think we're on the same page.


:evilgrin:

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ncrainbowgrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #1
16. You should start a thread in the lounge with that....
It could be an EXCELLENT updated version, fit for the times!
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Hubert Flottz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 05:09 AM
Response to Original message
4. The more things change...the more they stay the same
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/creedence+clearwater+revival/fortunate+son_20034362.html
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mcscajun Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 05:34 AM
Response to Original message
5. In 1968, when HAIR premiered, there were already far, far more
Edited on Thu Jun-07-07 05:39 AM by mcscajun
US soldiers KIA; in fact, by the end of 1968, the number stood at well over 14,000. Vietnamese casualties of course were far, far higher.

But, interestingly enough, that may not be what the song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" in Hair refers to. Jim Rado has said that the song was inspired by an Alan Ginsberg’s poem. Ginsberg’s "Wichita Vortex Sutra," written in February 1966, contains almost all the freaky, violent, surrealistic images in the song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero," often quoted word-for-word. In the poem, General Maxwell Taylor proudly reports to the press that three thousand, five hundred of the enemy were killed in one month. He repeats the number, digit by digit, for effect: "Three-Five-Zero-Zero." In addition to the many other images from the poem that found their way into the song, Ginsberg also refers to 256 Vietcong killed and 31 captured, which became 256 captured in the song lyric. Though the song starts out somber and intense, spilling out Ginsberg’s images of death and dying, it turns midway into a manic dance number, an absurdist celebration of killing that echoes Maxwell’s glee at reporting the enemy casualties, commenting on the Happy Face that the U.S. government tried to put on the ever diminishing returns of the war in Vietnam. While our soldiers (and theirs) kept dying, Washington tried to whip up World War II-style support for the war among Americans. But we had seen the war on our TV screens this time, and we weren’t celebrating.

http://www.orlok.com/hair/holding/articles/HairArticles/scottmiller.html
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 08:08 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. That's interesting, I did not know that.
I'll bet I've listened to that number a thousand times at least and I always figured it made reference to the number of US casualties up to a point in time. That's what it has always meant to me but what you say makes sense to me.

I wonder how many other things I've been wrong about most of my life. Maybe quite a few. Don't tell anybody. :blush:
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mcscajun Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 12:28 PM
Response to Reply #8
14. I'll never tell...
Edited on Thu Jun-07-07 12:30 PM by mcscajun
I always figure that if I haven't learned one new thing each day, and made at least one person laugh, it's a day wasted.

:hi:
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. My philosophy too.
Every day that goes by is another one gone. While we go let's try to be good to one another. And have fun.

:grouphug:

OK it sounds lame. But I really feel that way.
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BikeWriter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 05:38 AM
Response to Original message
6. "Ain't no use in going home;
Jody's got your girl and gone.
Ain't no use in feeling blue;
Jody's got your sister, too.
Ain't no use in lookin' back;
Jody's got your Cadillac..."
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. I don't know but I've been told,
Hup twop threep four....
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Nimrod2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 05:50 AM
Response to Original message
7. It is just a number
As snow would say...
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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 09:13 AM
Response to Reply #7
13. ...commas...


... each a unique universe of infinite treasure.
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formerrepuke Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 08:17 AM
Response to Original message
10. Thank you.... I always wondered what that meant.
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Lasher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 08:28 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. Not so fast I think I was wrong about that all these years.
See response 5 upthread by mcscajun.
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annabanana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 08:19 AM
Response to Original message
11. great resonant gongs are ringing in my head
3 - 5 - 0 - 0

I remember the pride with which the body counts were reported..
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ncrainbowgrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-07-07 12:36 PM
Response to Reply #11
15. no wonder why body counts have been discontinued.
I mean.. how could you put the iraqi body count into a song. (lancet #'s) six-five-zero, zero-zero-zero.

:cry:
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