Comments: 4

• Joe from Park Ridge, NjI don't think Vietnam is the setting for this song; it's far more likely Europe during World War I. For one, there are no Vietnam-like references: jungle, firebombing, defoliating. For two, Lynne is British, and the British didn't fight in Vietnam -- but hundreds of thousands of Brits were killed in the bloody, bloody battlefields of France in World War I. For three, there was no trench warfare in Vietnam, or even in World War II ("no more trenches where the soldiers lie"); that was the hallmark of "The Great War." Four: "No horsemen in the night...riding through your dreams..." Cavalry was still in use in World War I. Five: "The Great War" left most of France in ruins ("left you to walk through the ruins"), while most of the Vietnam War was fought in the jungles. Six: "Fatherland" is the term Germans have traditionally used (not just the Nazis -- the term came from the militaristic Prussians) to refer to their country. I guess we'll need Jeff Lynne himself to come out and explain it (unfortunately, my search for any ethnic roots to the name Kuiama came up empty), but that's my reasoning.
  
  The only thing that even mildly bothers me about this song concerns the way it comes to a stop-and-restart several times; to my mind, it interrupts the flow. Other than that, though, the surprisingly-moving lyrics and the music are driving and powerful, and "Kuiama" features perhaps the greatest violin solo (by Wilf Gibson, not future ELO "blue violin" virtuoso Mik Kaminski) in rock history.
• Tj from La, UgandaThis is an anti-war song--probably Vietnam. Lynn is singing to perhaps an asian person named "Kuiama." He compares his calls his country the "Father Land" which is what the Nazi Germans called Germany. He is saying that he was forced to kill for his nazi country (UK? USA?) and he can't live with himself.
• Ethan from HelsinkiThe first of many great songs by Jeff Lynne. :]
• Chris from Magdalena, NmThis 11-minute Progressive Rock piece showcased the new sound of Electric Light Orchestra as Roy Wood, Bill Hunt, Hugh McDowell and Andy Craig were replaced by Mike Edwards, Michael De Albuquerque and Colin Walker.
  
  This comment left out Jeff Lynne. He was the driving force behind ELO. Jeff wrote and produced all of ELO's work.

see more comments