Friday, March 23, 2007

Sounds of Vietnam

My uncle William "Burl" Flannery served in Vietnam from 1965 through 1967 with the 121st Helicopter Assault Company stationed in Soctrang. While there, he made many short "voice letters" on 3" reel to reel tapes that he would mail to the family (our family, in turn, would record voice letters for him).

Recently, I borrowed the tapes to transfer them to CD since my uncle hasn't had a reel to reel deck in many years. Included in the collection were tapes of music and other material he recorded while in Vietnam and in the early 1970's. In the blog, I'll be highlighting a few more interesting excerpts of the tapes.

One 5" reel contained a compilation of other tapes with some introductions by Burl. Titled "Songs of Vietnam", it included the following material. Each MP3 is a selection of highlights from that section of the tape and runs two or three minutes.

Pop music from Vietnam - A selection of pop records played on the Vietnamese radio stations.

Amateur singers - Recorded at a party in Saigon, highlights of some young girls singing for the microphone. One wonders what happened to them.

Sounds of war - Material recorded during a company patrol.

Vietnamese rock musicians - Recorded at the Whiskey a Go Go in Saigon just before my uncle left the country, the recording is a group of Vietnamese soldiers who performed rock music at the club.

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