Randy Boone Vietnam War Song

“It’s So Hard To Tell Mama Goodbye” is an early example of a music video (on film) from 1967 featuring Randy Boone on vocals and film. Randy had left The Virginian when this film was shot but the song provides an interesting insight into the concerns of young people in the Vietnam War era. Concerns that had a dramatic effect on the Western genre leading to the anti-hero as a lead character. Traditional Western stars such as John Wayne saw their popularity waver in the late 1960s and the TV Western become less relevant to an increasingly jaded generation. The few key TV Westerns (The Virginian, Bonanza, Gunsmoke) that survived through the 1960s into the 1970s all began their runs in more optimistic times for America and the few TV Westerns that began production during the mid-to late sixties all suffered early cancellation with the exception of The Big Valley and The High Chaparral which both ran to four seasons.