The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place:” The (Unofficial) Vietnam War Veterans’ National Anthem

BY Colin McGuire

That bass line slithers like a king cobra through a Vietnamese rice field. The drums pitter-patter like a steady groove of small arms fire. The voice is ominous, like the dead of night. And then there’s the cathartic crescendo. It doesn’t come until about one minute and 12 seconds into the song. But when it comes, it’s undeniable: We gotta get out of this place.

2025 marked the 60th anniversary of the release of The Animals’ version of a song that has become the unofficial Vietnam War veterans’ anthem, and to many veterans who served in the war, the song hasn’t aged a day. Hearing it stirs up strong memories and deep emotions, emotions unified through the hope the song brought to American troops who wanted nothing more than to get home safely. It doesn’t matter how old the song or the listener is, the melodies and the memorable refrain continue to inspire.

“Bruce Springsteen said it was every rock and roll song he ever played and it’s the best song there is,” Doug Bradley, a Vietnam War veteran who’s written widely about the war’s music, said in a recent interview. “We were the rock and roll generation and music was in our DNA. Whether you served or protested, you heard the same music. It was a way to connect as a generation.”

And to think: The Animals didn’t even write the song. That credit goes to the prolific Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriters, Barry Mann and Cynthia Well, who wrote “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ ” and many other hits. Recorded in June 1965 and released in July, the track was originally intended for the Righteous Brothers. As the story goes, once Allen Klein, The Animals’ manager, heard a demo of the song, he gave it to Mickie Most, the band’s producer, although Barry Mann made it known that he wanted to record it himself.

Neal Ulevich/AP

That didn’t stop The Animals from recording their version of the song before Mann did. Slightly altering some lyrics, The Animals made it their own, taking the song to No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1965. Stateside, it peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Charts and industry accolades meant nothing in comparison to the impact the song had on U.S. troops serving in Vietnam a few years later. According to former AFVN disc jockey Adrian “Good Morning, Vietnam!” Cronauer, it was the most requested tune on the network at the height of its popularity.

Joseph Ferry remembers that it was 1969 when he first caught the wave. “It was at base camp; a Korean band was there,” Ferry said. “The last song they played was ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place,’ and the whole place went crazy. Guys jumped on chairs and tables, and they were singing the whole song. That day, it became my song.

“Anytime nowadays if I’m at a place with a DJ, I go up and ask them, ‘Do you have ‘Gotta Get Out of This Place?’”

The Animals’ hit has been undeniably anthemic for many Vietnam War veterans. What’s more, the popularity of the song underscores how important music was for troops as they came together and bonded. After all, even if the track was an unofficial anthem for the majority of those serving in the war, it wasn’t the only song with which service members connected.

In October 1970, Kimo Williams was part of an Army band that toured South Vietnam for 60 days. Having enlisted in 1969, Williams, who later co-founded the Lt. Dan Band with the actor Gary Sinise, would go to EM clubs and play guitar while other musicians—drummers, bass players, singers, and the like—would join him. In short, his job was to help provide entertainment for the troops.

Despite its popularity, Williams noted that his band never performed “Gotta Get Out Of This Place” during that tour mainly because he was part of what he called a “Black band.” The environment at the time, he said, was racially divided, and that included separating bands and their members by race. As such, his audiences were looking for a different anthem.

“Edwin Starr’s ‘Twenty-Five Miles’ was our song,” Williams said. “When we performed that, the place just went wild. It was funky, rhythmic. It was the song they wanted to hear.”

Even so, and despite the racial divide, Williams was quick to point out how important the legacy of “Gotta Get Out” is to this day. The song’s ability to unite people in such a tumultuous time, he said, should never go unnoticed.

That song was “drink a beer and just yell,” Williams said. “It was one of those things where you just wanted to hear the chorus. There was a connection where the music sent you somewhere. It became a powerful emotional connection for the soldiers.”

AP photo

Laurence St. Antoine, a Vietnam War veteran from Michigan, agreed with Williams about the ability to connect with more than just one song. “Detroit City,” a song made famous by Tom Jones, Bobby Bare, and Billy Grammer (who used the title “I Wanna Go Home”) was as popular as anything else St. Antoine said he heard while serving in the Vietnam War. Still, as Williams noted, it’s the chorus of “Gotta Get Out” that sticks with St. Antoine more than any other piece of music from that time to this day. As he thought out loud, he couldn’t help but recite it as though it were second nature.

“We gotta get out of this place if it’s the last thing we ever do,” St. Antoine said. “It became something that spread everywhere. It was good for the [troops] because it brought us just a little bit of home.”

There may have been other anthems for different people throughout the war, but “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” has arguably had the most lasting shelf life since the war ended. According to a 2006 study by the University of Wisconsin, the track was the song with which Vietnam War veterans most identified.

Part of the song’s ability to maintain its potency all these decades later is related to how unique the Vietnam War was, said VVA Veteran Arts Editor Marc Leepson.

“It was the first televised war, for one thing,” he said, “and it was the first rock and roll war. Music was as important in the war to us as it was back home.”

“Whenever I hear that song, it 100 percent takes me back to when I heard it then. I remember drinking beer in an EM Club at Long Binh days after I arrived in December 1967 and the place was packed to the gills. They had a jukebox and ‘Gotta Get Out of This Place’ came on loud and everybody sang the words. I mean, everybody. Strangers. Nobody knew each other. But that song came on and everyone just screamed out the chorus at the top of their lungs. I can still hear it.”

“One smart thing the military did was they knew we were the rock and roll generation,” Doug Bradley added. “They wanted to provide creature comforts to keep troops’ morale up. AFVN [radio] did that with music. You had to be silent in the field, but when you came back, you had your music. It distinguished us for who we were.”

Part of who the troops were during that time developed through the connection with each other, thrust together suddenly into the circumstances of the war, as well as into the shared musical experience that helped them get through it. As Kimo Williams explained, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” found its way into people’s hearts and memories despite its unconventional way of getting there.

“Think about the actual song – it’s all taken out of context,” Williams said. “You don’t think about what the singer is saying and what the song is actually about because it’s about two lovers getting away from family. You don’t think about that. You associate it to a time in your life and remember all those guys you were with. People at a bar with traumatic issues could hear that song today and break into tears. It’s not so much about the song itself; it’s about what it brings back to you in your life experience.”

Bradley said that science may play a role in why those connections persist today. “Brain research has found that when you hear a song, it can take you right back to where you were when you heard it,” he said.

“You’re just there. Music keeps us alive and functioning. The Vietnam War soundtrack was so authentic. Music back then had an honesty and accuracy to it. Plus, these days, we’re fragmented. I’d love to think there’s a moment we can have today where some anthem will help inspire a change that is going to come, but I don’t see it happening.

“Back then, we were all affected by it. To have all this music that we can recall from back then is so personal and so anxious. We were thousands of miles away from home, but we took it with us, and the music became our soul.”

He then paused before saying matter-of-factly: “I’ll go to my death bed saying this was the greatest music ever.”

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