Artist Denny Guy

Release Denny Guy

Year 1972

Label Daybreak # DR 2008

Format LP · Album

Country USA

Language English

Songs here 4 in the archive

1972 · Album · Daybreak # DR 2008 · USA

The song "My Lai Lad" (Daybreak Records # DR 2008) displayed sympathy with Calley, portraying him as a scapegoat, which somewhat conflicts with other songs on the album, which largely promoted peace. Denny Guy, a singer/songwriter born in Nebraska, based his career in Hawaii. This debut album received some coverage in Billboard, which wrote on 26 February 1972: "a strong bid for radio and chart action in this his album debut...Guy has the sound that could easily catch on the first time out".¹ However, this album failed to chart, and this appears to also be his last album. Audio magazine also reviewed the album, and praised the political material: "highlights are an anti-war treatise, Marching Song and a pro-humanity, anti-scapegoat piece, My Lai Lad".² The song "Trouble Maker" also commented on the war, demonstrations, and the counter-culture, while the final album track, "Country Ballad" , commented that "the war has ended in Vietnam, we're bringing our boys back home" .

Back to the My Lai song, the narrator presented Calley as a scapegoat for "the politician man" , whom had "put a gun into his hand" . Like many other songs, it compared him to the story of Jesus: "they're trying to crucify" . Instead, the narrator believed that "the whole world is to blame" . It contained several religious, Christian references. A strange mix of anti-war sentiment, with patriotic, pro-soldier content, it perhaps provided a representation of those in 1972 who did not have a strong role in the protest movement, but could see that the war was winding down. Yet the blind defence of Calley seemed to contradict with the narrator's Christian / religious sentiment found throughout the record.

The songs