“Intimate and deeply informative, with a scope that encompasses both the war itself and the way that music has helped raise awareness of veterans’ issues long after its end.”

“A sentence from We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner jumped out of the page and hit me: “The music of the Sixties somehow bridged that gap for a generation that was being torn apart by Vietnam.” I never imagined that my song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” would reach soldiers in Vietnam fighting the war.”

“A compelling work of historical writing, We Got to Get out of This Place isn’t so much about the music of the time of the Vietnam War, but about the people who listened to the music and how the music affected their lives. As you would expect of any fine work of music history, it provides a clear and interesting analysis of how the culture and events of the time shaped the music of the time. However, the book goes beyond this.”

“When you realize the average age of a combat soldier in Vietnam was 19, you can better appreciate how music would be indelibly written into the experiences of that powerfully formative time.  We were the “counter-culture” generation that fought and rock and roll was our music.”

“We Gotta Get Out of This Place is chock full of materials that present multi-voiced memories of how popular music related to the experiences of American GIs in and after the Vietnam War. The book will appeal to veterans, and in many ways is written by, for, and to them. But students and fans of popular music history, the history of the 1960s, and the history of war will also find it an engaging and worthwhile read.”

“Of the many ways to relate the story of the Vietnam war, few are more vibrant and accessible than the way Doug Bradley and Craig Werner tell it in We Gotta Get Out of This Place. Music is the universal language, but to the soldiers in Vietnam, the songs of the sixties carried a special weight that both defined their existence and helped them survive. I devoured this book.”

“On its surface, We Gotta Get Out of this Place is a history of the music of the Vietnam generation. But Doug Bradley and Craig Werner do much more than that. They give us an innovative glimpse into the experiences of U.S. servicemen at war and a vivid example of the powerful role music played in their lives.“

“The authors understand more kinds of music, more songs, and more troops of more kinds than anyone else who’s written about the American military experience in Vietnam. Whether you read it because you are interested in the war, the music, the politics, or because you’re still trying to figure out what hell was going on, We Gotta Get Out of This Place will be a revelation.”