Banana Valley
1969 · Goldust LPS156 · USA
- Artist
- Dick Jonas
- Title
- Banana Valley
- Release
- FSH Volume 1
- Year
- 1969
- Label
- Goldust # LPS156
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation — US Military & Veteran Songs
Dick Jonas, from Florida, US, served in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, taking part in 125 missions, and receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters and the Air Medal with 12 clusters. (1) While in Vietnam, Jonas wrote songs and played guitar for the US troops there and as part of pacification programs. Some of these recordings were captured in the General Edwin Lansdale Collection of Vietnam War Songs - 6 ten inch tapes of one-hundred-sixty songs by American military personnel in Vietnam - stored at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. (2) (3) Jonas returned from Vietnam in 1969 and recorded the album FSH Volume I (Goldust Records # LPS156), a collection of contemporary folk songs, influenced by US folksong revival of the 1960s. (4) He also recorded during the Vietnam War years the 1971 album FSH Volume II - "YGBSM" (Goldust Records # LPS157) and the 1973 album Two Sides of Dick Jonas (Goldust Records # LPS-162). Included on this 1969 album was the song "Fighter Pilot's Christmas" in which the narrating soldier sent a Christmas message home to his family. A re-recorded version appeared on the 1991 compilation In Country: Folk Songs of…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
US Air Force fighter pilot (Lt Col, ret.); flew 125 combat missions in the F-4 Phantom with the 8th TFW Wolf Pack from Ubon, Thailand, 1967-68, and recorded numerous albums of fighter-pilot ballads from 1969 onward. Born and raised in the Suwannee River valley of northern Florida. Currently resides in Chino Valley, Arizona. [Source: artist website erosonic.com; publisher bios]