| Hair – Three-Five-Zero-Zero Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It seems I have to correct myself a year later about the origin of the title. The ones before me who wrote about number of casualities were right, I'm convinced now. At http://www.orlok.com/hair/holding/articles/MiscellaneousArticles/3-5-0-0.html we can read about a conversation among people in the musical's team: "So, I yell back and give my basic pitch. You know, the one about the 3,500 US Marines that landed at Danang in Vietnam on March 8, 1965, thus signifying the official shift in America's role from an advisory one to an active combat one, a fact that would have been known by and caused worry to a newspaper-article-clipping hippie draftee as was Claude Hooper Bukowski. Jim (that's THE Jim, mind you. As in James Rado) smiles and nods in appreciation. But he says, 'But you know, we (he and Gerry---Gerome Ragni) got that figure from Allen Ginsberg, and I feel like it referred to casualties.'" If he who wrote the lyrics to the song (James Rado) says so, it is so. |
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| Hair – Three-Five-Zero-Zero Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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March 8, 1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam as 3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam. Source: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1965.html That should be the origin of the 3500, not anything about number of casualties. The number 256 must be about this man who was a prisoner of war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Hegdahl Seaman Apprentice (E-2) Douglas B. Hegdahl is a former United States Navy sailor who was a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War. After his early release by North Vietnam, upon returning to the United States, he was able to provide the names and personal information of about 256 other POWs as well as revealing the conditions in the prison camp. In the anti war song, I guess they use the same famous number but for the Viet Cong prisoners instead. |
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