VA - Does Anybody Know I'm Here?: Vietnam Through The Eyes Of Black America 1962-1972 (2005)

As much a penetrating and painful lesson in American history as it is a fantastic set of vintage, obscure soul, Does Anybody Know I'm Here? Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 62-72 -- the follow-up to Kent's superb A Soldier's Sad Story -- documents a very different dimension of antiwar protest music: Edwin Starr's classic "War" aside, the mainstream antiwar canon comprises songs written and performed almost entirely by white folkies (Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, et al.), but the African-American response was just as potent and provocative, with an underlying sense of hopelessness and disenfranchisement that speaks volumes about the mindset of the black counterculture as war raged not only in Southeast Asia but also in places like Detroit and Watts. Ranging from the mournful soul of Marvin Gaye's opening "Soldier's Plea" to the blistering funk of Funkadelic's closing "March to the Witch's Castle," the set spans not only musical styles but also varying shades of polemical intensity -- some cuts are confrontational and direct, others elegiac and allegorical, but all burn with the emotional honesty and complexity that are the hallmarks of soul music at its finest. Other highlights include the Dells' title cut, Archie Bell & the Drells' "A Soldier's Prayer," and the Impressions' "Don't Cry My Love."