Well this is a whole lot, isn’t it? The narrator spends Christmas in a foxhole in Vietnam, where it’s kill or be killed. Either way, he’s not trimming the tree with family and friends, or roasting chestnuts on an open fire. The closest he’s getting to any of that is a letter from his lady back home, which he reads over and over in the rare moments he hasn’t had to “pinch myself to see if I’m I alive.”
This is one of at least three songs called “Christmas In Vietnam.” The best-known one, from Johnny & Jon in 1965, is more of an R&B ballad. There’s another from 1967 by Soul Searchers that’s along the same lines. This song, credited to “Private Charles Bowens and the Gentlemen From Tigerland” and released by the very obscure Harlem-based Rojac Records in 1966, is even more morose. And that’s an accomplishment, given that the competition includes a bit where Johnny & Jon are shouting about how there’s “Vietcong everywhere!” Will Private Bowens even make it to the end of his song? All I know is, he’s crying out for his mother as the music fades out. Probably don’t lead with this at your holiday singalong.
