Updated List of Tunes

So perhaps you noticed my updated list of songs...or perhaps you did not. Either way, I'm going to explain one of my new choices.

The song "Rooster" by Alice in Chains does not obviously sound like a particularly inspired song by its name alone. Upon listening, and listening closely, one will see that the song is inspired by the Vietnam War.

Jerry Cantrell, the guitarist and one of the songwriters in the band, is the son of a Vietnam vet, and his father's nickname in the army was "Rooster"...hence the title of the track.

The song was written as a tribute of sorts to his father. "Walking tall, machine gun man/ They spit on me in my homeland..." Unforunately, we have heard stories of soldiers returning from Vietnam only to be spit on by people who opposed the war, and this song speaks to those people. "Gloria send me pictures of my boy..." This is an obvious reference to Jerry and his mother, but it also speaks to any soldier's longing for friends and family while they are away on duty.

This song would be useful when trying to learn about a soldier's journey to Vietnam and return home. It is not gruesome in its details of warfare and atrocities, as the song is not about those things, but it instead focuses more on the will to survive and come home to be with loved ones.