Because it takes me forever and a day to write a book, I’m intrigued by writers who can turn out a story in any form in a matter of minutes. Songwriters especially interest me because they have to tell a story within the two to three minute length of a typical song. I saw the Eagles on tour several years ago. This was before we lost the incomparable Glenn Frey. During the concert he told the story about writing the Eagles’ smash hit, Lyin’ Eyes in about fifteen minutes.
I was and still am in awe of that song, with its complete story arc and ingenious internal rhymes. Back then I hadn’t heard the story of the writing of Abraham, Martin and John. That story came to me while I was working on my playlist (which you can find right here on the site. Just go to the A Season In Saigon description and click on “learn more”).
As the songwriter Dick Holler recalled, in June of 1968 he and his writing partner Phil Bernhard were in New York writing a new album of songs. Dick was fast asleep when in the wee hours of June 5, Phil burst into his room. “Wake up! Wake up! They just shot Bobby Kennedy.” Too heartsick and stunned to continue work on the album, the two men left New York and went home to Florida. Dick sat down and in ten minutes wrote the lyrics to Abraham, Martin, and John, a song for a country still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr just two months earlier and from the assassination of President John F Kennedy two years earlier.
Holler had in mind The Kingston Trio or Peter, Paul, and Mary to record the song but he and Phil met 29 year old Dion DiMucci who had had a successful career in the late 1950s and early 1960s with his group The Belmonts. Best known for hits such as Runaround Sue and The Wanderer, Dion, who performed under his first name, recorded Abraham, Martin and John. The song released in August of 1968 reaching #4 on the charts in the US and #1 in Canada and selling more than one million copies.
It was a song for a nation and a world struggling to understand political violence. I added it to the playlist to show the progression of the mood of America as the war in Vietnam wore on. The playlist itself tells a story. From lighthearted summer romance songs such as The Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice, to the strains of Simon and Garfunkel’s folk hit Scarborough Faire, to protest songs and then to songs of hope for peace, these are the songs that informed my novel. The songs Tallis and Nick heard during their time in Saigon. I hope it immerses you more deeply into the Saigon of 1968 and into my story.
