Military History

I went to a military college as a civilian, and now work at the school's graduate school, in the military history department. I'm liking the fact that I have a) just graduated and now have a regular job and b) get to work in the field that I majored in. It's pretty cool. Yesterday, we started our latest set of classes, and to commemorate this, a couple of songs about military history.

The War Was In Color is a fantastic Carbon Leaf song, really dark and a really moving story about the Second World War. Yankee Bayonet is a fantastic Decemberists song about the American Civil War. Third up is Fortunate Son, by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a Vietnam War era protest song about the military conscription. Bom Bom Bom is a song out of this current conflict by a band called Living Things, and really embodies the mentality of a typical 18 year old soldier going out to war in the Middle East, at least with Gulf War 1 or 2. And to end this list, Ashokan Farewell, which sounds like a period piece, but it was the main theme in the fantastic Ken Burns series, The Civil War, and is generally associated with the conflict. If you're interested at all in World War 2, I'd recommend checking out Ken Burn's upcoming documentary, called The War, which will be released later this month on PBS. If his earlier works have been any indication, this one's going to be fantastic.

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) - The Decemberists
The War Was In Color - Carbon Leaf
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bom Bom Bom - Living Things
Ashokan Farewell - Jay Unger

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