Next stop is CSPAC

Hugo Keesing has had a long and prolific career as an authority on American popular music. Dating back to the mid-1970s, when he was a American studies professor at this university, Keesing has been an influential figure in the academic study of popular music.

Though he has been retired from teaching here since 1991, Keesing recently completed what is probably the crowning achievement of his professional career: a mammoth box set of music inspired by the Vietnam War, titled Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record, 1961-2008, which is composed of 13 CDs and a 304-page book.

Today, Keesing will be giving a presentation on his box set in the Michele Smith Performing Arts Library, located in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The event begins at 4:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. He is expected to show a PowerPoint and field questions from the audience.

Vincent Novara, CSPAC curator of special collections in performing arts, was instrumental in organizing the event and calls the box set "an important achievement." He said he hopes students will turn out to see Keesing's talk because "there's bound to be something they connect to."

Indeed, Next Stop Is Vietnam is an unprecedented work of scholarship on an important era in American history. Before this, a two-CD set produced by the History Channel was just about the only available collection of music related to Vietnam.

But Keesing, who taught in Vietnam in 1970 and for whom music about the conflict has always been a passion, has broken new ground with this release.

It includes hundreds of songs by a variety of artists in every decade since the 1960s: Bob Dylan, Country Joe McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye, R.E.M. and Old Crow Medicine Show are all represented.

There are songs recorded during the war by soldiers in Vietnam that have never been available previously. The last two CDs consist entirely of music made by Vietnam veterans themselves.

"It's valuable because everyone is put on the same pedestal," Novara said of the breadth of the tracks. If an artist has worthy commentary on the conflict, it's very likely they have a voice in the box set.

Unfortunately, Keesing couldn't get permission to use every song he wanted. For example, the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classic "Ohio" is absent from the set. But the quality and quantity of the entire box surely makes up for it.

Begun in 2006 and originally envisioned as a six-CD set, the project grew in size and scope.

"The Vietnam generation is getting older, and it was at the top of my list to bring closure to my work," Keesing said.

As it turns out, since the completion of the project, Keesing has discovered hundreds of additional songs about Vietnam that even he hadn't heard. Though he has not planned anything official yet, he said he has enough new material for another project.

The sheer volume of music written about Vietnam is a testament to the war's magnitude and its enduring controversy. The cultural response to the conflict, which is documented in Next Stop Is Vietnam, has become almost as intriguing as the war itself. The United States is still wrestling with the implications of such a bloody, confusing and controversial period in its history.

Despite the fact that the 40th anniversary of the war's end is approaching, the appeal of works commenting on the war doesn't seem to be waning in the least. The $300 box set is already out of stock in the United States, having been ordered by a number of libraries and colleges. Private citizens, especially veterans, have also taken a keen interest in Next Stop Is Vietnam, according to Keesing.

Of course, such work is not exactly new for Keesing. In the 1970s, he was one of the first professors to explore popular music in an academic environment.

"There were three electives in my department," Keesing said. "We had sex, death and rock ‘n' roll."

By the '80s, Keesing was teaching classes of hundreds of students about popular music. Today, the field is widely respected across the country. The success of Next Stop Is Vietnam is just the latest proof of the educational value of exploring popular music.

"My overarching wish has been to validate music and popular culture as a legitimate barometer for studying history," Keesing said.

It's not hard to see he's succeeded.

Today, he'll bring his passion and intelligence back to the place where his career began for what will be an illuminating and captivating event.

diversions@umdbk.com