"Fallen Comrade Blues" (hoopiejohn original)
Channel: hoopiejohn
Date: 2009-05-14

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*My Album: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hoopiejohn
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A "hard driving" blues piece with a serious message.

I became aware of my own mortality when I read this grim statistic: of the 2.7 million men and women who served in Viet Nam, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that only one-third of us who did serve in Viet Nam (850,000+/-) are alive today.  Two-thirds have passed on. So I dusted off a piece I wrote some years ago for this YouTube performance.

I also read another alarming statistic: though there are only the 850,000+/- of us left, almost 13 million people now claim to be Viet Nam veterans! What's that about? The most hated war we've ever fought, and now, after all these years, gutless weirdos who've never seen a round fired in hate, want to claim to have been there! I distinctly remember the late 60s/early 70s, and the vast majority of men, by one means or another, were able to avoid military service; "Jody" had a "precious ass".

from "Henry V" by Wm. Shakespeare,
(King Henry speaking to his men before the Battle of Agincourt)...

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 
This day shall gentle his condition: 
And gentlemen in England now a-bed 
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, 
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 
That fought with us upon Saint Crispian's day" 

Read also "Stolen Valor" by B.G. Burkett/Glenna Whitley, and Google "fake Vietnam veterans" to learn about this phenomenon for yourself.

Quote: "Vietnam. What happened? We were ahead when I left".

Played finger style on my 6-string National steel-bodied "ResoRocket Deluxe" resonator guitar. 
 
Reasons for wearing the disguise:

1) To avoid creditors
2) To avoid ex-wives and ex-girlfriends
3) I'm a typical ugly old hillbilly (72 yrs) with bad teeth, bad hair and bad clothes.
4) Advised to do so by the Witness Protection Service
5) Mob has a contract on me
6) I'm otherwise famous, and don't want this to get out
7) I have a solemn, dignified position in a small town, where performing blues music with suggestive, politically incorrect 
themes wouldn't be appropriate. (Think preacher, funeral parlor director, high school teacher, mayor, etc)
8) I'm on probation
9) To avoid prosecution. I have outstanding warrants and unpaid fines. 
10) I'm a hermit, and very reclusive.
11) I was hideously scarred by an accident.
12) I'm the professional Mexican wrestler (luchador), known as "El Favoso".
13) I'm a third degree hikikomori with black belt.
14) I suffer from combat-related PTSD, which the VA psychiatrists say is manifested in my case as avoidant personality disorder.
15) I make the worst kind of "stinky face" when I play: clinched and bared teeth, rapid eye movement. A real turnoff.
16) For the pure boyish fun of being a super hero with a "secret identity". (My superpower is playing blues guitar).