"does anybody really care?" genre: Melodic Trance
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	Dark but uplifting. Asking questions, seeking (finding?) answers. A beat that drives and an anthemic piano that comes in on the choruses. built around a spoken word poem.
	CD: unreleased   Label: seven records Credits: words by yar strebor. music, recording, and mixing by victor minetola
	Story Behind the Song A friend of my father wrote this poem back in the early 70s. He read a newspaper article about a Vietnam vet. The vet had some outstanding driving tickets from before he went to Vietnam. Once he was home, he was pulled over for drunk driving. Since he had outstanding tickets, they said they had to take him to jail. He said he would go, but they needed to be sure that they got him to the VA hospital for regular treatments on his foot (he had jungle-rot). They said they would, but never did. He lost his leg. After reading the article, my dad's friend sat down to write a letter to the paper. He was angered about the treatment this man received. He also thought about the way vets came home and were almost ostracized from society. They were drafted. They didn't necessarily want to go and fight, but they did. Then they come home and people taunt them and throw rotten fruit at them. Their jobs were gone. Their schooling was interupted. They had a very hard time coming back to life after the horrors they experienced. In this poem, the soldier never does make it home. He asked the simple quiestion - does anybody really care what his guy went through for the US? Yar had been wanting me to turn his poem into a song. I decided that I wanted to record him reciting the poem and build the song around it. By the time we sat down to do it, September 11th had just happened. He wrote a prelude and postlude to his poem, kind of setting the tone and even answering his own question - back then, it seemed like no one cared, but now that soldier's life really did make a difference. I put his vocals into the computer and chopped them up into phrases, finding his rhythm/tempo. Came up with a beat and started to make up the verses. Wrote the anthemic instrumental choruses and then worked on the stutters/etc to make things interesting. Started in November 2001. Finished the mix in September 2002. Lyrics September 11th. A very sad day for America and the rest of the world. It takes me back in our history when America was somewhat divided on an issue of war. Let me take you back in history for a moment . . . Does anybody really care? The young man got his "greetings" one day. To be exact, on the 5th of May. Loved ones saw him off with a tear in their eye With full knowledge that in Vietnam he may die. He looked at those whom he held dear And pretended that he felt no fear. I wonder - does anybody really care? In service, he learned the art of killing. They fixed his heart to show no feeling. His letters was long. His vision was grand - He had thoughts of coming home to a marching band. After five months in that tortured land, He realized he became a man. I wonder - does anybody really care? A few weeks later, he did come home. There was a band but he heard no song For he had lost his life to the Viet Cong. On that dark and miserable day, One soldier thought that he heard him say "I wonder - does anybody really care?" Now, in retrospect, Yes, young man America really does care And they did care. You did not give up your life in vain. You helped to pull this great nation together. America learned its lesson. We're together now. America is together. God bless America.

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