Post by the Scribe on Apr 28, 2021 12:01:57 GMT
FLASHBACK: A Musical Fourth of July Salute From HBO : All-Star Benefit Concert for Viet Veteran Groups JULY 3, 1987
Linda Ronstadt Great live version from 1987
Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram - Somewhere Out There (Live 1987)
A Musical Fourth of July Salute From HBO : All-Star Benefit Concert for Viet Veteran Groups
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-03-ca-945-story.html
By DIANE HAITHMAN
JULY 3, 1987 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
This year, Home Box Office and Welcome Home Inc. decided that one Veterans Day was not enough. On Saturday, the two will join forces to make Independence Day another Veterans Day celebrating those whom America, until recently, has generally ignored: the men and women who fought in Vietnam.
“Welcome Home,” a star-studded concert honoring Vietnam War veterans to be cablecast on HBO at 9 p.m. Saturday, will take place earlier that day at Capital Center in Landover, Md., near Washington. Proceeds from the concert will be distributed to veterans’ groups around the country by Welcome Home Inc., a nonprofit veterans’ support organization.
Musicians donating time for the four-hour concert include Linda Ronstadt, James Ingram, Neil Diamond, Kris Kristofferson, Stevie Wonder and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Spokesmen for the project are Jon Voight, Peter Fonda, John Ritter and Ricardo Montalban, who lost a son in the war.
“The concert is simply to give an encouraging word to those who made it back alive,” said Ronstadt, who will perform some of her Vietnam-era hits as well as contemporary songs. “I just thought it would be nice if all of us got up there and said ‘Welcome home,’ unqualifiedly.”
The event will be simulcast by MJI Broadcasting to 100 radio stations nationwide, including KLSX-FM (97.1) in Los Angeles.
In addition, the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and other baseball teams have agreed to join Welcome Home Inc. in paying tribute to Vietnam veterans by having a vet throw out the first ball at their Fourth of July games, or with other types of acknowledgements. In Anaheim, the California Angels will acknowledge veterans with announcements on the message board and the public-address system.
“When all those kids went over there (to Vietnam), there was a lot of controversy over whether they should have been there or not, and I think the years have shown that they should not have been,” Ronstadt said. “But the fact remains that they were made to go, and didn’t get credit for it. To have everyone calling them murderers--that was horrifying. They weren’t to blame; somebody else was to blame.
“I was at a gym the other day, one of those chi-chi places where soap-opera stars go to lose the six ounces off their thighs they gained eating sushi, and I heard this kid who was working there talking about ‘Platoon.’ And he said, ‘You know, it makes running out of clean towels not seem very important.’ And bless his heart, he was right. It woke him up.”
“Welcome Home” is the second grand-scale fund-raising effort for Chris Albrecht, HBO’s senior vice president of original programming. The first, “Comic Relief,” raised money for the homeless in March, 1986. “This is not about combat; this is not about heroes,” he said. “This is really more of a celebration rather than any kind of flag-waving.”
Referring to the recent feature films “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket,” which have fostered public sympathy for the Vietnam veteran, Albrecht added, “I think this project wouldn’t have happened without the increased awareness and acceptance of Vietnam vets. I think a lot of things led up to this, but we’re not acting after the fact. It’s very much a part of what’s going on.”
Joey Talley, president and organizer of the 18-month-old Welcome Home Inc., said that she became involved in Vietnam issues when a veteran friend died at 34, allegedly due to complications from exposure to Agent Orange.
“We have had some nice monuments, and some nice films (acknowledging Vietnam vets),” she said. “But this (concert) is a ‘people’ thing; it’s for the people of America to pay tribute on a national level to the Vietnam vets.”
Albrecht said HBO sought a corporate sponsor for the concert but, unable to find one, decided to finance the production itself. None of the profits will go to pay HBO’s expenses, he said.
“We don’t need to raise anything--'Welcome Home’ is free and clear,” Albrecht said. “Of course, we’d like to raise as much as possible.”
Albrecht said that the “Welcome Home” event was much more difficult to organize than “Comic Relief” because music is involved (“It’s not as easy as having somebody stand up and tell a joke”) and because the Vietnam issue remains highly politicized. Some veterans groups, including the Washington-based Vietnam Veterans of America, have expressed concerns about fund distribution, ticket sales and other issues.
“I have fears about (dissent),” Albrecht said. “There are, frankly, people who are gunning for this event. I just hope the spirit of this event is one in which these various groups can put their political concerns aside for an hour and say, ‘Hey, this feels great.’ ”
The concert, originally booked into Washington’s 52,000-seat RFK Stadium, suffered a setback when slower-than-expected ticket sales prompted organizers to move to the 20,000-seat Capital Centre. “This event is not about ticket sales,” Albrecht said. “The most important thing is that we’re being televised.”
Viewers may make donations by dialing (800) USA-1987 during the telecast.
THE ROCK VETS WELCOME HOME THE VIETNAM VETS
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-26-ca-362-story.html
By STEVE POND
FEB. 26, 1986 12 AM PT
Monday’s “Welcome Home” benefit concert at the Forum, which raised money for Vietnam veterans, was a little like the war itself: It was extensively covered by TV cameras and it seemed to drag on forever.
The unwieldy, sprawling affair featured about two dozen musical performances and just as many speeches--the music courtesy of folks like Neil Young and Stevie Wonder, the talk from folks like Jon Voight and Whoopi Goldberg.
Equal parts nostalgia, political activism, celebration and rock ‘n’ rolling, the show had produced a reasonable amount of top-notch music by the time it ended a couple of hours behind schedule and well past midnight.
Nothing was as gripping as Bruce Springsteen’s singing an impassioned “Who’ll Stop the Rain” to wheelchair-bound vets at a Sports Arena show nearly five years ago, but it’s nearly impossible to hit that kind of peak when you barely have time to play a couple of hits before moving on.
Most of the performers were veterans of the rock wars and survivors of the activist ‘60s. That sometimes made the show seem like a procession of has-beens, but it also made you realize that the songs of the Vietnam era have become golden oldies while the vets waited for their due. While “Welcome Home” was the name of the show, “This is long overdue” was the subtitle.
At first, though, the evening looked like a K-Tel collection of Golden Oldies From Close Friends of the Artists Who Made Them Famous. Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger played “The Unknown Soldier” and “Roadhouse Blues” while actor-singer Steven Bauer seemed to be auditioning for “The Jim Morrison Story.”
Ex-Byrd Chris Hillman performed “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” and a group called Buffalo Springfield Revisited performed Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” and Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth,” even though the band didn’t include Stills or Young.
Eventually, the producers threw out the speeches and trimmed many sets to one song. It saved time, but it was frustrating to watch things like the Buddy Miles Express vamp interminably and then see Nils Lofgren forced to relinquish the stage right after playing an exquisite version of one of his loveliest early songs.
Some performers managed to bridge the gap between decades: Richie Havens transformed Bob Dylan’s recent “License to Kill,” just as he used to do with Dylan’s older songs, while Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis floated through a playful, ethereal “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” And a pair of reliable superstars delivered: Stevie Wonder’s “Front Line” was the toughest Vietnam song of the night, while Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” became a chilling ode to Vietnam’s casualties.
Things frittered out after Young--who in the world decided to end the show with REO’s Kevin Cronin?--but the tone of the evening remained generous, celebrative and supportive of the men and women who saw the unpopularity of the war rub off on them.
The single most moving moment, in fact, came when comedian Fred Travalena asked the veterans in the half-filled arena to stand. As inspiring as it was to watch them rise, receive the wild applause and spontaneously embrace other vets sitting nearby, it was equally sobering to realize that their camaraderie was won at a price the rest of us didn’t have to pay.
Linda Ronstadt Great live version from 1987
Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram - Somewhere Out There (Live 1987)
A Musical Fourth of July Salute From HBO : All-Star Benefit Concert for Viet Veteran Groups
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-03-ca-945-story.html
By DIANE HAITHMAN
JULY 3, 1987 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
This year, Home Box Office and Welcome Home Inc. decided that one Veterans Day was not enough. On Saturday, the two will join forces to make Independence Day another Veterans Day celebrating those whom America, until recently, has generally ignored: the men and women who fought in Vietnam.
“Welcome Home,” a star-studded concert honoring Vietnam War veterans to be cablecast on HBO at 9 p.m. Saturday, will take place earlier that day at Capital Center in Landover, Md., near Washington. Proceeds from the concert will be distributed to veterans’ groups around the country by Welcome Home Inc., a nonprofit veterans’ support organization.
Musicians donating time for the four-hour concert include Linda Ronstadt, James Ingram, Neil Diamond, Kris Kristofferson, Stevie Wonder and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Spokesmen for the project are Jon Voight, Peter Fonda, John Ritter and Ricardo Montalban, who lost a son in the war.
“The concert is simply to give an encouraging word to those who made it back alive,” said Ronstadt, who will perform some of her Vietnam-era hits as well as contemporary songs. “I just thought it would be nice if all of us got up there and said ‘Welcome home,’ unqualifiedly.”
The event will be simulcast by MJI Broadcasting to 100 radio stations nationwide, including KLSX-FM (97.1) in Los Angeles.
In addition, the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and other baseball teams have agreed to join Welcome Home Inc. in paying tribute to Vietnam veterans by having a vet throw out the first ball at their Fourth of July games, or with other types of acknowledgements. In Anaheim, the California Angels will acknowledge veterans with announcements on the message board and the public-address system.
“When all those kids went over there (to Vietnam), there was a lot of controversy over whether they should have been there or not, and I think the years have shown that they should not have been,” Ronstadt said. “But the fact remains that they were made to go, and didn’t get credit for it. To have everyone calling them murderers--that was horrifying. They weren’t to blame; somebody else was to blame.
“I was at a gym the other day, one of those chi-chi places where soap-opera stars go to lose the six ounces off their thighs they gained eating sushi, and I heard this kid who was working there talking about ‘Platoon.’ And he said, ‘You know, it makes running out of clean towels not seem very important.’ And bless his heart, he was right. It woke him up.”
“Welcome Home” is the second grand-scale fund-raising effort for Chris Albrecht, HBO’s senior vice president of original programming. The first, “Comic Relief,” raised money for the homeless in March, 1986. “This is not about combat; this is not about heroes,” he said. “This is really more of a celebration rather than any kind of flag-waving.”
Referring to the recent feature films “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket,” which have fostered public sympathy for the Vietnam veteran, Albrecht added, “I think this project wouldn’t have happened without the increased awareness and acceptance of Vietnam vets. I think a lot of things led up to this, but we’re not acting after the fact. It’s very much a part of what’s going on.”
Joey Talley, president and organizer of the 18-month-old Welcome Home Inc., said that she became involved in Vietnam issues when a veteran friend died at 34, allegedly due to complications from exposure to Agent Orange.
“We have had some nice monuments, and some nice films (acknowledging Vietnam vets),” she said. “But this (concert) is a ‘people’ thing; it’s for the people of America to pay tribute on a national level to the Vietnam vets.”
Albrecht said HBO sought a corporate sponsor for the concert but, unable to find one, decided to finance the production itself. None of the profits will go to pay HBO’s expenses, he said.
“We don’t need to raise anything--'Welcome Home’ is free and clear,” Albrecht said. “Of course, we’d like to raise as much as possible.”
Albrecht said that the “Welcome Home” event was much more difficult to organize than “Comic Relief” because music is involved (“It’s not as easy as having somebody stand up and tell a joke”) and because the Vietnam issue remains highly politicized. Some veterans groups, including the Washington-based Vietnam Veterans of America, have expressed concerns about fund distribution, ticket sales and other issues.
“I have fears about (dissent),” Albrecht said. “There are, frankly, people who are gunning for this event. I just hope the spirit of this event is one in which these various groups can put their political concerns aside for an hour and say, ‘Hey, this feels great.’ ”
The concert, originally booked into Washington’s 52,000-seat RFK Stadium, suffered a setback when slower-than-expected ticket sales prompted organizers to move to the 20,000-seat Capital Centre. “This event is not about ticket sales,” Albrecht said. “The most important thing is that we’re being televised.”
Viewers may make donations by dialing (800) USA-1987 during the telecast.
THE ROCK VETS WELCOME HOME THE VIETNAM VETS
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-26-ca-362-story.html
By STEVE POND
FEB. 26, 1986 12 AM PT
Monday’s “Welcome Home” benefit concert at the Forum, which raised money for Vietnam veterans, was a little like the war itself: It was extensively covered by TV cameras and it seemed to drag on forever.
The unwieldy, sprawling affair featured about two dozen musical performances and just as many speeches--the music courtesy of folks like Neil Young and Stevie Wonder, the talk from folks like Jon Voight and Whoopi Goldberg.
Equal parts nostalgia, political activism, celebration and rock ‘n’ rolling, the show had produced a reasonable amount of top-notch music by the time it ended a couple of hours behind schedule and well past midnight.
Nothing was as gripping as Bruce Springsteen’s singing an impassioned “Who’ll Stop the Rain” to wheelchair-bound vets at a Sports Arena show nearly five years ago, but it’s nearly impossible to hit that kind of peak when you barely have time to play a couple of hits before moving on.
Most of the performers were veterans of the rock wars and survivors of the activist ‘60s. That sometimes made the show seem like a procession of has-beens, but it also made you realize that the songs of the Vietnam era have become golden oldies while the vets waited for their due. While “Welcome Home” was the name of the show, “This is long overdue” was the subtitle.
At first, though, the evening looked like a K-Tel collection of Golden Oldies From Close Friends of the Artists Who Made Them Famous. Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger played “The Unknown Soldier” and “Roadhouse Blues” while actor-singer Steven Bauer seemed to be auditioning for “The Jim Morrison Story.”
Ex-Byrd Chris Hillman performed “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” and a group called Buffalo Springfield Revisited performed Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” and Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth,” even though the band didn’t include Stills or Young.
Eventually, the producers threw out the speeches and trimmed many sets to one song. It saved time, but it was frustrating to watch things like the Buddy Miles Express vamp interminably and then see Nils Lofgren forced to relinquish the stage right after playing an exquisite version of one of his loveliest early songs.
Some performers managed to bridge the gap between decades: Richie Havens transformed Bob Dylan’s recent “License to Kill,” just as he used to do with Dylan’s older songs, while Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis floated through a playful, ethereal “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” And a pair of reliable superstars delivered: Stevie Wonder’s “Front Line” was the toughest Vietnam song of the night, while Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” became a chilling ode to Vietnam’s casualties.
Things frittered out after Young--who in the world decided to end the show with REO’s Kevin Cronin?--but the tone of the evening remained generous, celebrative and supportive of the men and women who saw the unpopularity of the war rub off on them.
The single most moving moment, in fact, came when comedian Fred Travalena asked the veterans in the half-filled arena to stand. As inspiring as it was to watch them rise, receive the wild applause and spontaneously embrace other vets sitting nearby, it was equally sobering to realize that their camaraderie was won at a price the rest of us didn’t have to pay.