[stylist] Feedback request please

[loristay at aol.com]

Brad, I loved the song.  I was around during the Viet Namese conflict.  The airforce tried to recruit me, but my eyesight wasn't strong enough.  Discrimination, early on.  Oh well.
Lori



-----Original Message-----
From: Brad Dunse' <lists at braddunsemusic.com>
To: Writer's Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sat, Oct 29, 2011 3:31 pm
Subject: [stylist] Feedback request please


Feedback of any willing sort is welcome :). 
Pasted from Word so for me carriage returns 
"look" extra but I don't think they  actually 
appear as such visually, not sure though.





Vietnam Memorial Wall



With gear hanging over both shoulders, canvas 
pack-straps and their buckles digging in my 
sweat-drenched skin, nervous fingers on both 
hands re-gripping their assigned provisions every 
ten steps, I huffed my way through the crowds of 
uniformed soldiers. Picking my way across the 
grounds into a slightly wooded area, I finally 
was able to drop my bags with a deep sigh, flex 
my shoulders, and stretch my back a bit. The tree 
allowed a shady escape from the baking sun. 
Mid-morning temps were already in the 80’s with 
matching humidity­they said it would be like 
this­; and the mercury was meant to reach into the 90’s today.



Under the cover of shade, I took in the action 
around me; and in amazement, I began to wonder 
what the day might look like in hindsight. A bit 
nervous of what to expect, I mean the sight of 
battle experienced Vietnam soldiers walking 
about, and my taking part in something like this 

, I knew I would have a new friend or two by 
days end. Looking about, I wondered which one of 
the many souls out there would become my new friend.



Finally, two gents approached asking if I was who 
I was. Once I affirmed it, we shook hands, 
chatted a minute, and opened up our packs. I sat 
down on a stool, opened up a case, and started 
fiddling around with my guitar a bit.



No, I wasn’t in a base camp located in Vietnam, I 
was on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul, 
Minnesota; at a kickoff event for what the 
governor of Minnesota declared as Vietnam Day.



So why was I there? It wasn’t because I served a 
tour in Vietnam, I was born about a decade and a 
half too late for that. Besides my age (though I 
probably didn’t know it at 18-years old), there 
was a hereditary disease slowly scattering 
throughout my retinas affecting my peripheral and 
night vision which likely would have sent me back 
4F, preventing me from serving in the military. 
If that would have not stopped my being shipped 
out, eventually from mere survival of the 
fittest, some Asian would have carved my name in 
the Memorial Wall with the business end of his weapon.



So just exactly what was I doing there at Vietnam 
Day? I was invited by a grass roots effort to 
come and play some music, sort of 1960’s protest 
style, only we weren’t protesting, we were 
joining the proclamation and recognition of the 
brave men and women who served in Vietnam.



A compilation CD of Vietnam songs designed to 
help heal emotional wounds, and not let the world 
forget what suffering went on back then was 
released, and a song I co-wrote was picked as the 
featured song for the CD. The song I wrote with 
two other writers is called “The Wall.” The folks 
that put on the compilation project wanted me to 
come out and play some music, and of course play the featured song on the CD.



So we set up the small gear out on the large 
grounds of the celebration and started playing 
tunes. We played for children, fellow musicians, 
curious event attendees, friends and families of 
soldiers who stopped to listen, and then they 
came. One of the gentlemen who invited me rounded 
the corner with a group of Viet Vets, metals they 
earned clinking as they milled about and then he 
said, “Brad, why don’t you play your song for these gentlemen?”



I will tell you, I’ve played for many people at 
my gigs, but never had I been this nervous. I 
stared out with what vision I could muster, and 
saw these amazing souls standing before me, who 
all but a handful of decades ago were scared, 
brave young men watching their buddies tore apart 
right next to them in fox holes, on the battle 
field, and riding in jeeps they drove; facing 
unknown emotional battles of uncertainty whether 
the local people there approaching them, men, 
women or children all equal in ability; were 
allies of safety, or enemies about to cut them 
down. But here they were, standing anxiously, 
staring at me, wanting to hear the song we’d 
written for them and their buddies; and me 
desperately hoping we had gotten what they felt inside, right.



I swallowed hard and slow, strummed a few strums 
on my guitar to anchor myself a bit, and started to sing:



When you were searching for my name today

I saw you standing there

Man you look different

With that silver in your hair

Me, I haven’t changed a bit

Still all of twenty-one

That’s the thing about us spirits

We’re forever young

At the wall 
, here at the wall



Mid-way through the song, with a quivering lip 
and doubts I could even make it all the way 
through without choking up, I began to feel a 
reverence for these men stronger than ever 
before; men who endured not only a very different 
battle out on the field and in the jungle, but 
also that unexpected one of betrayal soon after 
the planes wheels screeched the tarmac of home.



I don’t think one strand of my hair laid flat the 
entire length of the song, but I did make it 
through to the end. When finished, I was 
immediately swarmed with soldiers shaking my hand 
60’s style, patting me on the back and profusely 
thanking me for writing the song. All the while 
it was me declaring indeed it was I who owe them 
thanks, and it’s only a shame that the song had 
to be written at all. That was one of the, if not 
the, most nervous experience I’d ever had playing for anyone.



Prior to “The Wall” being written, I had been 
thinking pretty heavy on writing a song about 
Vietnam. Considering it, I had decided what 
better topic to write on than the wall, maybe the 
Traveling Wall? I’d went back up on the National 
Memorial website, and spent hours up there 
reading profile entries that folks left for their 
loved ones. There were old goodbyes and present 
tense conversations: words from old high school 
buddies, family members keeping up a vigil, 
neighborhood friends who popped in after thinking 
about them, school teachers who wrote shortly 
after the news, and of course those uniquely 
bonded souls who served with them in the war 
; 
excuse me 
, “police action.” Reading the entries 
was nearly an addiction for me, I couldn’t help 
myself. I was up on their site before dinner 
time, and finally hunger coupled with drooping 
eyes pulled me off when the sun popped up the 
next morning. After spending the night reading 
droves of profiles of 21-year olds who never came 
back, I so much wanted to write a song about 
Vietnam and the wall now more than ever.



About a week and a half from that day, having 
knocked around some ideas for a song, I open up 
my email and see a message from my writing pal. 
Unbeknown to him, or anyone really as I had not 
told anyone I’d been drawn to write such a song, 
other than maybe my wife, I opened up a message 
from him wanting to know if I want in on a song 
about the Vietnam Wall and the soldiers. 
Naturally I was surprised and said sure and a few 
days later we had what is the current version of The Wall.



I often wonder, after nearly two weeks of milling 
it around, surfing the web, staying up all night 
mesmerized by what I was reading, putting myself 
in the shoes of those kids and their surviving 
families, not saying anything to anyone about my 
desire to write such a song about the Vietnam 
Wall, and then to be approached with this 
opportunity? ­I don’t know­is that just a simple 
coincidence? Or could there have been more to it than that?



The Wall has been played at a variety of places 
ranging from major commercial country radio, to 
web stations, to memorial ceremonies, to my own 
gigs; and I am very humbled it will be performed 
by a youth band raising brows up and down the 
east coast, as they play it as part of their 
invitation to perform at the National Memorial 
event in Washington DC this Veterans Day on November 11.



<http://www.braddunsemusic.com/music-45.html>Hear 
the song in it’s entirety and read the lyrics at: 
<http://www.braddunsemusic.com/music-45.html>http://www.braddunsemusic.com/music-45.html







Brad Dunse

"The naive believes everything, But the sensible 
man considers his steps." --Proverbs

http://www.braddunsemusic.com

http://www.facebook.com/braddunse

http://www.twitter.com/braddunse
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