"and have them not be affected. that's what would frighten me."

We have here one of the more meaningful (and surprising) big chart successes of the mid-1980s. Built around soundbytes from a television documentary on the Vietnam war, it seized on one chilling factoid: The men (and women) who die in war seem to be getting younger and younger.

Doesn't seem like a very likely basis for an electro-funk-pop tune, now does it?

Yet somehow, it was, and the record never loses its sting or social comment.

Here's "Nineteen" by Paul Hardcastle.



Unfortunately, I could only find a video for the 7", shorter mix. The 12', longer mix has one of the most memorable bytes on the record:

" You're 18 years old and you're wearing somebody's brains around in your shirt because they got their heads blown off right next to you. And that's not supposed to affect you. I've never understood that. What would scare me...is if we were to send a group of 18 year olds 12,000 miles away...and subject them to, a year of that obsenity...and have them not be affected . That's what would frighten me"