No, the friendship jolted by the cello went on its crazy way over the years. This was before "frenemies" but far more illustrative. There are always more songs to write and record, even if they never get into the stores and onto the airwaves.

The initial song I heard in the den of my fizz fix sounded so clean I wondered if it was a rerecording. The Hollies and then Roe decidedly indicated it was the original since this was, again, a stream for oldies at various points on the scale of forgotten.

And clean it was. What certain parties wanted as "clean". Top 40 slash Drake Radio in those days always wanted to indicate a few good intentions after the various examples of innuendo. Paul Revere and the Raiders (lawd, there was such a name) would chart with the anti-drug "Kicks" and I remember an ode to "Little Altar Boy". So before I heard the naughty wink of "Cinnamon" and the slightly grinning innocence of "Sheila" came the kind of tune which set things right, the rare item, genre-wise, which has caused many shuffling feet as it feted marching ones.

"Ballad Of The Green Berets", by one SSgt. Barry Sadler, co-written with the author of the like-named novel, Robin Moore. The John Wayne opus came later, and one is tired of hearing the sneers about the sun setting into the ocean off Georgia---I mean Vietnam. Hey, there's better stuff pointed out on IMDB, such as Wayne angrily shattering his fallen comrade's M-16 against a tree stump. Really??? In reality (wherever you can find that in this blog), it was Mattel, and ended up not so swell.

Yes, pop music then was not likely to be played in Penney's as it is now: it was indeed the toy department.

Moore and Sadler, as I recall and Wiki can be invoked another time (renders me a pinko regardless?), were hell raisers and I have to raise---no, not the glasses into which the birds were poured, but one more point.

One sleeve featuring the Green Berets album listed, among the other military themed titles, "Salute To The Nurses Of Vietnam" aka "Our Angels".

The key difference to writing an essay in this age: I looked that song up and listened to it on line. Very seriously, in the maddening topics "The Invisible War" has broached one thinks, maybe there was a little gesture ahead of its time.

Glad this opus is over for many reasons.