The Korean War Mattered Too (Songwriting Week 8--Watching Miss Mabel Jean Waltz)

You ever notice how there aren't many songs written about or set in the Korean War? There's plenty of songs trumpeting the heroism of WWII vets and exponentially more written about the national trauma that was the Vietnamese conflict, but I challenge you to name one song about the '50s and Korea. Why is that? Speaking for my generation, we wouldn't have learned jack about Korea if it hadn't been for the marathon run of the hugely popular sitcom M*A*S*H in the 70s-80s (You tell 'em ferret-face!).

It's not like nobody suffered and died over there. Almost 34,000 US personnel according to this source. And that's just the US. Another source claims over 400,000 Koreans died and over 115,000 Chinese. And it wasn't an overnight conflict like Somalia where most of us missed it because it didn't last long enough to hit our radar until they made a movie about it (Black Hawk Down). We're talking about a conflict that lasted seven brutal years.

Out of curiosity, I did a Google search for "famous korean war songs" and this was the number one hit: Conelrad/Atomic Platters. If you're like me, you've never heard any of the featured songs on this website, even though one of them ("Weapon of Prayer") is by the very well known Louvin Brothers.

Okay, so I think I've made my point, and as you're probably guessing by now, I decided once upon a time that SOMEbody needed to at least set a song in the vicinity of the Korean War timeline. The lyrics you see below referencing the Red Threat, MacArthur and the Chosin Reservoir (site of the coldest, most miserable battle in modern history) are my effort in said regard. The other pivot point in this song is the name Mabel Jean. What a great Southern name, right? And I didn't make this name up. I have a dear friend whose name is Mabel Jean. Most folks don't realize that her given name is Mabel Jean because she goes by the moniker of MJ, which is all I knew her as for years. As soon as I was told that her full first name was Mabel Jean, I knew it would show up in a country song penned by yours truly some day.

Some day turned out to be in Spring 2008 when Christina and I were driving through Onslow County on our way to Topsail Island NC for some beach time. We were driving through some pretty remote country and spotted a sign for Juniper Swamp just as we were discussing my love affair with MJ's name. I saw that sign and said out loud, "Hmmm. Juniper Swamp and Mabel Jean. That's got the makings of a song in it."

For reasons that I can't explain, I put the Juniper Swamp/Mabel Jean thing together with my sense that nobody was writing songs set in the '50s regarding Korean War vets together, mixed it up with my desire to write a tune that approximated a waltz and, well, what you see and hear is what you get. Oh, and the detail oriented readers will note that my copyright claim specifies 2008 and 2010. That's because I wrote the majority of the lyrics for this in 2008, but didn't like the original musical concept enough to finish it. Just this week I woke up humming the "new" musical version of this tune and got motivated to rewrite the lyrics to make them fit. And here we are.

And I thank you for being here. Until next week, thanks for reading and listening.

To listen to "Watching Miss Mabel Jean Waltz" click HERE and use Steve's Myspace Music Player to check it out.

WATCHING MISS MABEL JEAN WALTZ [F/Capo III]

[D] [D] [G] [G] [A] [C] [D] [D]

[D] Round Juniper Swamp, in the sandhills of Cracky

Way back in the moss and the [G] trees

Met a [D] fine flatlands girl, with bottle green eyes

Who brought me to my very [C] knees

She was [D] just seventeen, and I weren’t much older

When the market day chanced us to [G] meet

And on [D] that same night, in a make shift dance tent

T’was a waltz brought us [A] both to our [D] feet

We [G] joined hands we smiled

Not [D] neither a child

The second our feet left the [G] floor

The whirling the tapping

The [D] sight of her laughing

Sheer bliss … was that heavenly [A] score!

So I [D] promised that lady, my God and myself

Just as soon as the enemy [C] falls

I’d [D] return to this place and the [G] thrill that I felt

[D] Watching Miss [A] Mabel Jean [G] waltz, whoa-oh-oh!

[D] Watching Miss [A] Mabel Jean [D] waltz

INSTRUMENTAL TO INTRO

[D] Three years have since past, and my youth shot away

By the threat of the enemy [G] Red

I’m a [D] disabled vet, give my legs to MacArthur

And the ChiCom who left me for [C] dead

Like [A] thousands in Chosin, that [G] hellish cold place

I left something precious be[D]hind

But it [A] could have been worse, what a [G] damnable fate

If the Conflict had stricken me [A] blind [A7]

Now [D] when I get home, stage a war heroes’ dance

You can wheel me straight into the [G] place

And I’ll [D] watch as she dances with every young man

Let the memories [A] play on my [D] face

REPEAT BRIDGE AND CHORUS

(c) Steve Celestini, 2008 and 2010