Ballad for a Soldier
1971 · Shelter SW-8910 · Hollywood, California
- Artist
- Asylum Choir
- Title
- Ballad for a Soldier
- Release
- Asylum Choir II
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Shelter # SW-8910
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- Hollywood, California, USA
- Genre
- Rock · Pop Rock
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
Asylum Choir - featuring Leon Russell (keyboards) and Marc Benno (guitar) - released the track "Ballad for a Soldier" (Shelter Records # SW-8910), which drew comparisons between the idea of being a war hero as seen in films and the actual reality of warfare. It did not mention Calley or My Lai directly, but, the narrator (in the Calley role), told the listener that he did not know "how many babies I had killed that night", until he saw the "color photographs inside of a magazine" - a clear reference to the Ronald L. Haeberle photographs, originally published in black & white in the Plain Dealer on 20 November 1969, and a couple weeks later, in Life Magazine, which printed them in colour, on 5 December 1969. Overall this track took an anti-war position, criticising the actions of Calley.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Leon Russel - born 2 April 1942, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA. Died 13 November 2016, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Themes
My Lai · Protest · Anti-Calley · Anti-War
In collections
My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs