08 Apr 2010, Written by Tom LG in essay,life,music,secondary
Express Delivery At The Depot
It was 1971 and Johnny was marching home. The war had steadily been destroying lives since 1959 and there were still four more years to go before the last of the American troops in Vietnam would be home. Over 50,000 of our boys’ lives had been lost and though many were returning, home replacements were still being deployed regularly. The war still had to be fought. Vietnam had changed the citizens of this country, it opened doors and it closed some too but overall it took a great deal of things from many people.
The changing world of the 1960s opened the door for strong political music. It could be heard everywhere. Bob Dylan recorded “Masters of War” in 1963. This was a gritty response to Eisenhower’s warning of the military-industrial complex. Five years later Eric Burdon’s “Sky Pilot” was released, this was the story of a military priest’s conflicting emotions of his place in the war. In 1969 Edwin Starr recorded a
tune called “War” this was a furious commentary on the futility of war and destruction it creates. In 1971 Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” shot up into the #2 position in the pop charts (#1 on the R&B charts.) This showed a significant change in the country’s atmosphere and soon radio became a new outlet for political expression.
Fiddlin’ Steve Ledford was born in North Carolina in 1906. He had recorded and played with traditional music icons Wade Mainer, Clyde Moody and Roy Hall in the 1930s and Bill Monroe in 1940. He spent half a year in New York recording for the American Recording Company then eventually returned to North Carolina in 1941 to raise cattle and hens. He continued to play music with family and friends until his death in 1980.
Fiddlin’ Steve, his brother Wayne and his nephew James played music together as the Ledford String Band and recorded a song in the fall of 1971. It was about the war’s effect on a loving mother and father, it was called “He’s Comin’ From Vietnam” it was a somber bluegrass tune about a father waiting for the return of his son at a train depot. The LP was released in 1972 on Rounder Records (#0008) under the title Ledford String Band.
Ledford String Band – “He’s Comin’ From Vietnam” (mp3)
In the first few lines, it seems that a Norman Rockwell type scene is about to unfold: a father in a suit and hat, anxiously waiting and searching for a sign of his uniformed boy. But that image quickly dissolves as the fiddle begins and the real story unfolds, “One morning when the office had opened, a man called old in years, stood by the express office showing signs of grief and fear. And when the clerk approached him, with trembling words he said, I’m waiting for my boy Sir, he’s comin’ home today. He’s comin’ home to mother, not comin’ as I am; he’s comin’ home in a casket Sir he’s comin’ from Vietnam.” The confused clerk thinks that the man is at the wrong office and begins to explain that the passenger pick-up is at the station across the way. Then the source of the confusion becomes clear, “You don’t understand me Sir, the old man quickly said. He’s comin’ not as a passenger but by express instead. And when the whistle pierced the air and the train came in on time, the old man rose in a brisk less pace and quickly rushed outside.”
Soon a coffin appears and the clerk begins to understand the father’s grief and fear. As the workers begin to lower his son’s casket down onto the platform it causes nervous reactions in the people at the station that have gathered to watch. He asks them to be careful and suggests that they are not sympathetic to how he feels, “Do not treat him roughly boy. He contained that barring jack, he went away as you boys are, this way he’s comin’ back. He broke his dear old mother’s heart when he left her alone and this is the way they all come back when they join the boys in blue.” The devastation the father feels is overwhelming and he blames his son for the mother’s despair. But here is a song that avoid politics all-together. This is not about discontent with the government; it is not about war or peace, it is not even about soldiers. This song is about the ones who are left at home while the killing and dying is conducted. It asks nothing and points no fingers. However it does remind us that the casualties of war are not always soldiers.
Wars are fought on many levels. In 2006 I attended the wake my dear friend Damon who killed himself after fighting in the Iraq war. I saw the faces of his mother and his father, I held his wife’s hand and when I looked across the room I saw family, friends and comrades. I did not hear arguments about Iraq. I did not see war protesters or supporters. I saw tears and pain in the eyes of us who were left behind. I saw the effect of combat at my own front door. We can not possibly comprehend the experiences of soldiers in combat nor can we imagine the confusion and paradoxes that can be found in every situation but surely the dead have something to teach us about our world.
I have listened to this record two dozen times in the last few days and I wonder if Fiddlin’ Steve knew this father. I wonder how this man from the mountains of North Carolina felt about the war in Vietnam and I wonder how this song would be interpreted today by the North Carolina Tea Party Patriots? It seems that today we are given conflicting information on how we should view our American war dead. For 18 years there was Pentagon ban on showing photographs of dead American soldiers in flag draped coffins. On one hand we are told that the dead are heroes, yet on the other hand we were not trusted to honor those heroes by viewing the hidden costs of war and being allowed to acknowledge their sacrifices. When you listen to this tune consider that by 1975, 58,230 boys were lost to the war, and 116,460 mothers and fathers never saw their sons alive again. Then consider that somewhere in this country today a family is waiting to pick up their boy at the station.
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