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Vietnam’s Dylan

Anti-war singer-songwriter passes away

An undated photograph of Trinh Cong Son. Photo courtesy of www.vhvn.com.

By Associated Press

Vietnam’s most beloved singer-songwriter, Trinh Cong Son, who opposed the Vietnam War and sought postwar reconciliation, has died after a long battle with diabetes, an official said Monday. He was 62.

“His death is a great loss for Vietnamese music,” said Ca Le Thuan, secretary general of Ho Chi Minh City’s Musician Association.

Renowned for his love ballads and anti-war songs, Son wrote more than 600 pieces. His music is still widely performed in Vietnam and in overseas Vietnamese communities.

Dubbed the “Bob Dylan of Vietnam” by American folk singer Joan Baez for his anti-war songs during the height of the Vietnam War in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Son was persecuted by the South Vietnamese government.

His pacifist songs about the futility of war were banned at the time, but bootleg copies made their way all over South Vietnam and overseas.

One of his most famous songs, Lullaby (Ngu Di Con), about the pain of a mother mourning her soldier son, became a hit in Japan in 1972.

When the war ended, most of Son’s family fled overseas, but he decided to stay. He was equally unpopular with the new Communist government for his songs about reconciliation, and spent 10 years in forced labor “re-education camps” as a result.

But by the late 80s, his popularity returned, and his songs are still performed by some of Vietnam’s hottest pop artists, including singer Hong Nhung.

Born in the Central Highland province of Daklak in 1939, Son spent many years in the ancient imperial capital of Hue. Trained as a teacher, Son quit his job to begin composing love songs in the late 1950s.

Son, who was admitted to Cho Ray hospital last week, slipped into a coma on Saturday and died Sunday, Thuan said.

He was buried Wednesday in the province of Binh Duong.