Three-Five-Zero-Zero is yet another one of the songs in our production which contains lyrics which are lost on the modern college age performer, so I thought I'd focus on demystifying what exactly Rado and Ragni were thinking when they put pen to paper.
The primary influences in 3-5-0-0 can be attributed to Allen Ginsberg, the antiwar beat poet most commonly know for his epic poem, Howl.
Borrowing from Ginsberg's Wichita Vortex Sutra, the lyrics for this song takes its title from the line "Viet Cong losses leveling up three five zero zero per month," which Ginsberg attributes to General Taylor or potentially Robert MacNamara. The lyric "256 Vietcong captured" refers once more to a Ginsberg line, reporting 256 Vietcong killed and 31 captured.
As for Ni**town, the reference comes once more from Ginsberg's final line to the Sutra, which was also notably a poetic device he utilized frequently:
The war is over now
Except for the souls
Held prisoner in Niggertown
The origin of the term seems to come under some speculation, one explanation was that Ni**ertown was used pejoratively by protesters in reference to DC during Viet Nam to highlight the segregational practices within the government. Tony Trigilio, in his Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist Poetics offers a somewhat different explanation:
In any case, Three-Five-Zero-Zero is just another example of the deep infusion of antiwar culture and social politics within Hair.
A whole town of Niggers???
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in reading the Ginsberg poem. There was a theory I heard about Vietnam being perpetrated solely for the drafting and extermination of POC. I have wondered if that is the meaning behind the lyric. Or if the Vietcong were also called the N- word?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think in Hair someone says "The Vietnam War is white people sending brown people to kill yellow people to defend the land they stole from the red people" I agree with that translation, there seemed to be an ulterior motive for Vietnam. (PS: This is NOT Tiffany, she left herself signed in)
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DeleteThat is a quote ("The Vietnam War si white people...") is used in a protest scene in the movie Hair. I do not believe the quote is from the play. There is a big difference between the Broadway musical Hair and the motion picture Hair. Fist of all, the movie was made 11 years AFTER the broadway musical. The times had changed greatly and that is reflected in the movie. There were songs that were left out, the reference to drugs and mind expansion was snuffed out in many songs and scenes, the orientation of songs were changed so the meaning was changed ("Donna" is really Ma-Donna not My Donna), the "Summer of Love" experience changed to anger and resentment at our government (Watergate). Plus they are all hippies in the play and Claude is drafted and has to deal with the dichotomy of peace vs. war. He dies in Vietnam.
DeleteEducate yourself
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc10.htm
This was very informative, thank you.
DeleteWe all I mean everyone are being programmed to do certain things &act a certain way.&if u don't its pretty much over for you so you have to be on guard at all times.
ReplyDeleteI do have to say:at least for now we can do whatever we want in our own minds. My thinking belongs to me and that's very important.
ReplyDeleteProbably just a coincidence that "256 viet cong" is the magic number of 8 bits in a computer or 2 to the eighth power. Maybe a reference to using a computer to calculate the casualties?
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