Doug Moe: Spreading book-to-be message of war, music

You know, the book gets published, they make the media rounds talking about it, and that's that.

As it is - with the book, working title "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," still gestating - Werner, a teacher at UW-Madison, and Bradley, about to retire from his position in UW-Madison's Office of Corporate Relations, seem to pop up regularly in a variety of venues discussing what is by any measure a fascinating topic.

Later this week, Werner and Bradley will anchor a three-day symposium (Thursday-Saturday) in Madison titled "...Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record, 1961-2008." It is hosted by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, UW-Madison and other community partners. There are five events - four at the Vets Museum and one at Monona Terrace - all linked to music and Vietnam, all free and open to the public.

There will be national artists such as soul singer (and veteran) William Bell, as well as local luminaries, including drummer Clyde Stubblefield - who famously toured Vietnam with James Brown in 1968 - and Bill Malone, the eminent country music historian.

Werner and Bradley will bat last, hosting an informal discussion on the music of the war at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Vets Museum.

I noted that Werner and Bradley - who met some years ago at the Madison Vet Center - show up in some interesting places. Next month, they'll appear on Dave Marsh's Sirius radio program talking about their book.

Did I mention it's still not published? (Permissions and rights issues on the lyrics have been among the stumbling blocks.)

I should add that Bradley has written and published extensively on his experiences as an information specialist in Vietnam and his work since with veterans; and that Werner, who teaches in the UW-Madison Department of Afro-American Studies, and is on the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is the author of several critically acclaimed books.

It was a decade ago, in fact, that I first met Werner, just after Marsh, a prominent music writer and Bruce Spring steen biographer, had introduced Werner to Springsteen after a concert in Detroit.

The Boss had read Werner's book, "A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America," and wanted to meet the author. The professor and the rock star spent a half hour in a little room inside the Palace at Auburn Hills talking about gospel music.

I had a cup of coffee with Bradley recently, and in the course of previewing this week's symposium, he discussed his Vietnam experience - "I survived," he said of his year there - and his first meeting, seven or eight years ago, with Werner.

"When Craig and I started talking," Bradley said, "it really hit home that music was central to the soldier's experience in Vietnam."

They outlined their book and began doing interviews with veterans. Was there a song that kept you going, or healed you, or otherwise sparked something in you?

One song that for obvious reasons kept coming up - so often that Werner and Bradley adopted it for their (forthcoming) book's title - was the Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place."

"It's the Vietnam veterans' national anthem," Bradley said. "Only a handful didn't mention it."

There were many other songs, for many other reasons, but in whatever form, music was a common denominator in Vietnam.

In a chapter they wrote for a boxed set of writing and music from Bear Records titled "Next Stop Is Vietnam" - the set's curator, Dr. Hugo Keesing, will present at this week's symposium - Werner and Bradley put it like this: "Vietnam soldiers used music to form bonds, express feelings and hold onto the humanity the world was trying to take away."

It's a powerful message, and the other day I told Bradley it might be possible he and Werner are writing the most inspiring book never published.

He laughed. "That sounds like us!"