Singing in Viet Nam Talking Blues

"Singing in Viet Nam Talking Blues" (or "Singin' in Viet Nam Talkin' Blues") is a song written and originally recorded by Johnny Cash.

Released in May 1971 as the second single (Columbia 4-45393, with "You've Got a New Light Shining" on the opposite side) from Cash's that year's album Man in Black, the song reached #18 on U.S. Billboard country chart and #124 on Billboard's Bubbling Under the Hot 100.

Analysis
"While [the first single] "Man in Black" wore its political overtones on its dark sleeve, the next single from the album [Man in Black] was perhaps Cash's most political to date. "Singin' in Viet Nam Talkin' Blues" is about a trip Cash and his crew took to Vietnam to entertain the troops, detailing the "livin' hell" he witnessed, and ending with a hope that, if ever he is to return, it will be after the war is over, by which time all of "our boys" will be home and safe."

"As implied by its title, the Cash composition is a talking blues, with a longish ostinato accompaniment by guitars, bass drum, and acoustic bass in a country style (country-style finger picking in the guitars and archetypical root-fifth oscillations in the bass) backing up the narrative text. Cash's text tells the tale of a trip to South Vietnam to perform for U.S. troops. The tour found the Cashes in close proximity to shelling and seeing the wounded troops being brought back to base. Cash conveys the sense of terror he and his wife felt being so near to the heated nighttime battles. Eventually, Cash explains that the troops need to know that there are people back home who need them and love them. He acknowledges the differences of opinion about whether the United States should be involved in Southeast Asia, but states that as long as American servicemen are there, they should be told that those back home pray for their safe return. At the conclusion of the narrative, Cash expresses his hope that if he ever travels to Vietnam again, he will not find U.S. troops there, that they all would have returned; he expresses his hope for peace forcefully within a vocal crescendo.

What Cash manages to do in "Singin' in Viet Nam Talkin' Blues" is to leave the means to peace open to interpretation: we cannot be sure if he advocates early withdrawal or peace through victory. By promoting peace — something every side in the political debate wanted — but not specifying how he feels that peace should be achieved, Johnny Cash manages to deliver a deeply personal story of a singer traveling to a dangerous foreign land, a plea for support of U.S. troops fighting abroad, whether they should have been sent there or not, all with a message of peace that all sides could interpret as supporting their view."