Death Or Glory: James Brown In Vietnam
James Maycock, MOJO, July 2003
JUNE, 1968. Seven US Army lieutenant colonels - six Afro-Americans and one Caucasian - are collected from Tan Son Nhut, Saigon’s international airport, and speedily transported through the muggy, dusty streets of the city. Pushing through boulevards bustling with the noise of a million bicycles, mopeds, jeeps and soldiers, past the French colonial architecture, sandbagged checkpoints and gun posts, they clamber out, in a frazzled jet-lag daze, at the steps of the Continental Hotel. Before entering the establishment, the seven army officers, dressed in jungle boots and fatigues, unload their weapons from the vehicle. These include a Fender bass guitar, trumpet, tenor saxophone and rhythm guitar.
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