VIETNAM VETERANS BENEFIT CONCERT
The Vietnam Veterans Benefit Concert near Washington, D.C. – which was nationally televised on HBO on July 4, 1987 – seems to be largely forgotten today; it is even omitted from the “1987 in music” article in Wikipedia. I took the concert to be, in large part, an apology from the 1960’s counter-culture for their disgraceful treatment of Vietnam Veterans (if I am not mistaken, even Jane Fonda put in an appearance), though no one was taking back anything that they had said about the politicians and many of the generals.
Several of the performers that had appeared at the original Woodstock Music & Art Fair in 1969 were in attendance: Richie Havens, Country Joe, John Sebastian, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at least individually, with Stephen Stills and Neil Young appearing in a reformed Buffalo Springfield). By the way, hardly anyone knows that Creedence Clearwater Revival was also a headliner at Woodstock; however, their subpar performance didn’t start until 3:00 a.m. (after the Grateful Dead) and was omitted from the film and concert albums (though they did make the 1994 box set). Other musicians at the Vietnam Veterans Benefit Concert included James Brown, Stevie Wonder, the Byrds, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson, Linda Ronstadt, Frankie Valli, and the Four Tops; and there were also speeches by John Ritter, Louis Gossett, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Oliver Stone, and Ed Asner.
In spite of the stellar line-up, the promoters of the Vietnam Veterans Benefit Concert could hardly contain themselves whenever they spoke of John Fogerty and his performance at long last of several of his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs for basically the first time in 15 years. His set included “Born on the Bayou”, “Down on the Corner”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, and “Fortunate Son”. That performance is truly one of the most thrilling concerts that I have ever seen – on television or in person. In-between songs, John Fogerty made a heartfelt speech to the veterans that also showed that he was beginning to come to terms with his own painful history:
“I just want to tell you something real short and sweet. I’m talking to vets here. I myself had gone through about 20 years of pain, and I finally faced that pain. I looked it right in the face and said, well, you got a choice: You can do it for 20 more years, or you can just say, ‘That’s what happened.’ You can’t change it, that’s just what happened. So I’m telling you guys, that’s what happened. You got the shaft. You know it, we know it, it’s reality. So drop it. In fact – [crowd reaction] You got it. Send me a letter, Berkeley, California, but you promise me something: You send the letter, you drop it in the box, and then you drop all that s--t you been carrying around. Is that a deal? And get on with it, buddy!”
(January 2013)
