I have one version of it on my Ipod, and it's the same version that comes on most 80s compilations. However, I have listened to Club 977 and they play a different version. This version talks about how the veterans arrest rate is higher than a normal person, and it also talks how the worst part was coming home, and that in WWII soldiers came home together on troopships, whereas in Vietnam they were sent home in jet planes. Is the version Club 977 plays a special mix or something?

Could be a remix?

I know the same year Paul Hardcastle releawsed '19', a group called The Commentators did a parody called 'N-N-Nineteen Not Out' which went into the UK Top 20

Heres the 2 versions I have
ext version
http://www.zshare.net/audio/14083749db1e298f/
& hot tracks digital version
http://www.zshare.net/audio/14083990e9416b84/

There's several different mixes listed at this page on Discogs.

I have one version of it on my Ipod, and it's the same version that comes on most 80s compilations. However, I have listened to Club 977 and they play a different version. This version talks about how the veterans arrest rate is higher than a normal person, and it also talks how the worst part was coming home, and that in WWII soldiers came home together on troopships, whereas in Vietnam they were sent home in jet planes. Is the version Club 977 plays a special mix or something?


I think you're after 19 (The Final Story), which is around 8:30 long.

According to Wikipedia, the Narrator was Peter Thomas, and the samples were from an ABC News documentary called Vietnam Requiem, an 1984 ABC television documentary about the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by veterans.

Available on 12" vinyl (1985), and possibly the 1999 compilation 2-CD set Mix of the Century, although I don't know if it's the 8:30 version or the 5:25 version on one of the Discogs.com entries.

------------- crank up the sampler.

Narrator: This is the story of men who are victims of war.  They fought the longest war in American history.  They all saw heavy combat in Vietnam.  Although they were all decorated for heroism, none of them received a hero's welcome.

Narrator: N-n-n-n-nineteen.  19.  19...

Veteran #1: You see a lotta destruction.  You see a lot of villages being burned, and you know people are being killed, and... you shoot into bushes and you hear screams and you know that people have been hit, but... to see someone get hit with a high-velocity steel-jacket round - designed by people, to kill other people.  There is no more obscene way to die.

Narrator:  Hundreds of thousands of men who saw heavy combat in Vietnam have been arrested since discharge.  Their arrest rate is almost twice that of non-veterans of the same age.  There are no accurate figures on how many of these men have been incarcerated, but a Veterans' Administration study concludes that the greater a vet's exposure to combat, the more likely his chance of being arrested or convicted.  This is one legacy of the Vietnam War.

Veteran #1:  They had VC that were twelve feet tall.  They captured the 25th Infantry with a bag fulla rocks.  Everybody went after Ho Chih Minh with broken bayonets.  These were the baddest dudes I ever saw in my life.

Narrator: N-n-n-n-nineteen.  19.  19...

(instrumental break, sampled scream, instrumental break)

Female background singers: "Destruction - d-d-d-d-d-es-des

Soldier: I looked at this guy and asked him what to do.  He'd been hit, right below his eye.  The side of his face was blown away.  He wasn't fallin', was just... standin'... and he kinda half-turned, and fell.  (And he kinda half-turned, and fell.)  And then we came back and we were different, and everybody wants to know "God, what happened to those guys over there"...

Veteran #2:  There's gotta be somethin' wrong somewhere.

Veteran #1:  ...We did what we had to do...

Veteran #2:  There's gotta be somethin' wrong somewhere.

Veteran #1:  And people wanted us to be ashamed - of what it made us.

Veteran #2:  They have no idea what it meant for five, ten years now.  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  Why?

Veteran #2:  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  What did we do it for?

Veteran #2:  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  Was it worth it?

---------------- fade out out at 4:44, then fade back in with -----------------

Samples:  "And then we came back, and we were different..." to the end of the song.  Just the tail endsamples, over an ambient background.

---------------- fade back out at 5:25, then back in with ---------------------

Narrator: This is the story of men who are victims of war.  They fought the longest war in American history.  They all saw heavy combat in Vietnam.  Although they were all decorated for heroism, none of them received a hero's welcome.

Narrator: Unlike Vietnam, World War 2 saw America unite behind her fighting men.  The two wars were just as different on the front lines as they were back home. 

(n-n-n-n-ninteteen...)

Narrator:  Hundreds of thousands of men who saw heavy combat in Vietnam have been arrested since discharge.  Their arrest rate is almost twice that of non-veterans of the same age.  There are no accurate figures on how many of these men have been incarcerated, but a Veterans' Administration study concludes that the greater a vet's exposure to combat, the more likely his chance of being arrested or convicted.  This is one legacy of the Vietnam War.

(instrumental break)

Female background singers:  All those who remember the war, they won't forget what they've seen.  Destruction, of men in their prime, whose average age was 19.  (d-d-d-d-d-destruction...)

Narrator:  After WW2, the men came home together, in troop ships, often less than 48 hours after jungle combat. ((( yes, that's exactly how it's sampled.  The re-recorded version is a re-reading of the original sample, or it says what the original Narrator meant. )))  Perhaps the most dramatic difference between WW2 and Vietnam was coming home.  (None of them received a hero's welcome.  None of them.  N-n-n-n-n-one-of-them-rec-none of them received a hero's welcome...  n-n-n-none of them...)

Veteran #1:  And then we came back and we were different, and everybody wants to know "God, what happened to those guys over there"...

Veteran #2:  There's gotta be somethin' wrong somewhere.

Veteran #1:  ...We did what we had to do...

Veteran #2:  There's gotta be somethin' wrong somewhere.

Veteran #1:  And people wanted us to be ashamed - of what it made us.

Veteran #2:  They have no idea what it meant for five, ten years now.  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  Why?

Veteran #2:  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  What did we do it for?

Veteran #2:  All we want to do is come home.

Veteran #1:  Was it worth it?

------------ end song, 8:30. 

But that's still not all the samples from the interview. 

From a 4:26 "Extended" mix:

Narrator:  In 1965, Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war, but it wasn't.  It was different in many ways.  In World War Two, the average age of the combat soldier was 26.  In Vietnam, he was 19.  In-in-in-in-in Vietnam, he was 19.  n-n-n-ninteen.

Newscaster:  The heaviest fighting of the past two weeks continued today, 25 miles northwest of Saigon.

Veteran #1:  I wasn't really sure what was goin' on.

Narrator:  nn-n-n-ninteen.

Veteran #1:  I wasn't really sure what was goin' on.

Narrator:  In Vietnam, the combat soldier typically served a 12-month tour of duty, but was exposed to hostile fire almost every day.

Newscaster:  In Saigon, a US military spokesman said today more than 700 enemy troops were killed last week in that sensitive border area.  Throughout all of South Vietnam, the enemy lost a total of 2689 soldiers. 

Female background singer:  All those who remember the war, they won't forget what they've seen.  Destruction, of men in their prime, whose average age was 19.  (d-d-d-d-d-destruction...)

Narrator: This is the story of men who are victims of war.  They all saw heavy combat in Vietnam. 

Narrator:  According to a Veteran's Administration study, half of the Vietnam combat veterans suffer from what psychiatrists call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Many vets complain of alienation, rage, or guilt.  Some succumb to suicidal thoughts.

Narrator:  This is one legacy of the Vietnam war.  They fought the longest war in American history.  None of them received a hero's welcome.

Sample:  (( Difficult-to-decipher Army military cadence ))

Narrator:  Vietnam
Newscaster:  Saigon
Narrator:  Vietnam
Newscaster:  Saigon
Narrator:  Purple heart
Newscaster:  Saigon
Veteran #1:  I wasn't really sure what was goin' on.
Narrator:  n-n-n-n-nintenteen

Sample:  (( various military effects ))

Narrator:  Almost 800,000 men are still fighting the Vietnam War.

-----------------

There's a 12" mix at 5:16.  No references to arrest records or troop ships.  But it does have one more sample from Veteran #1:

Veteran #1:  You're 18 years old and you're wearin' somebody's brains around on your shirt because they got their head blown off right next to you.  And that's not supposed to affect you.  I can never understand that.  What would scare me, is if we were to send a group of eighteen-year-olds 12,000 miles away, and subject them to a year of that obscenity, and have them not be affected.  That's what we're fighting.

----------------------

The Disconet version (7:54) features the original Narrator, cuts the four words "That's what we're fighting" from the "brains all over your shirt" sample, but adds one more sample:

Newscaster:  With the release of the last American prisoners by North Vietnam today, the final contingent of US troops in South Vietnam boarded planes and flew out of Saigon.

-----------------

And that still isn't it! 

There must have been some legal difficulties (or someone noticed a mistake in the source documentary), because there's a 6:20 "Dance Mix" that contains the same samples, but all of the Narrator's lines have been re-read by a different narrator.  The re-recorded voice has an edge to his voice that indicates that he's very aware of why he's reading the Narrator's lines.

The Newscaster's samples, and Vet #1's samples, are original; only the Narrator's samples were re-recorded.  Both the "arrest" line and the "troop ship" lines are re-recorded, and the "troop ship" line has been corrected to say "After WW2, the men came home together in troop ships, but the Vietnam vet often arrived home within 48 hours of jungle combat."  (Which is what was meant in the original, although I don't know whether the mistake was on the part of the Narrator or a quick edit by Hardcastle to fit the line into the bars of music.  It sounds a lot like the Narrator made a mistake, although I'd have to see the original documentary to make that official.)

----------------------

Last, but not least, and by "Least", I mean that I don't speak German or French, I know there are versions with the Narrator's (and some of the Newscaster's lines) transcribed into German, and another version with the same thing done in French.  I gotta draw the line at transcription somewhere, dammit.