Release Date: May 23, 2024
Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Wall” was inspired, in large part, by a musician he idolized in his youth. Walter Cichon was the front man for a band called the Motifs, who were taking the New Jersey shore by storm in mid-to-late 1960’s. Walter’s voice was forever silenced in Vietnam when he was just 21 years old, but his indomitable spirit lives on through those who knew him — including, to a surprising degree, The Boss himself.
Walter Cichon is honored on panel 47E, line 9 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/9124/WALTER-A-CICHON/
https://echoes-of-the-vietnam-war.simplecast.com/episodes/front-man
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Show Notes
Bruce Springsteen —”The Wall” (Charlotte, NC, 04/19/14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3m0BXVKPu0
Walter Cichon — The Wall of Faces
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/9124/WALTER-A-CICHON/
The Motifs — “Molly”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3yzHj-NKtY
The Motifs — “If I Gave You Love”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqv4Ag146E0
Bruce Springsteen idolized these Jersey brothers. Then one was killed in Vietnam. (The Washington Post, 12/15/18)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/12/15/bruce-springsteen-idolized-these-jersey-brothers-then-one-was-killed-vietnam/
Springsteen honors musical role model (Asbury Park Press, 08/18/14)
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/2014/08/18/walter-cichon-springsteen-connection/14268653/
Stormin’ Norman Seldin
https://www.storminnormanseldin.com/
National League of Families of American Prisoners & Missing in Southeast Asia
https://www.pow-miafamilies.org/