Blue Four

Annotation — US Military & Veteran Songs

The second of three album released by Dick Jonas during the Vietnam War era - from Florida, USA, he served in the US Air Force during the war, taking part in 125 missions.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.23 This album FSH Volume II - "YGBSM" (Goldust Records # LPS157) was recorded in 1971, shortly after his first album FSH Volume I (Goldust Records # LPS156), recorded in 1969 - a collection of contemporary folk songs, influenced by the US folk revival of the 1960s, as well as including some country music influences.4 He also recorded during the Vietnam War years the 1973 album Two Sides of Dick Jonas (Goldust Records # LPS-162). He featured on the 1991 compilation In Country: Folk Songs of Americans in the Vietnam War (Flying Fish Records # # FF 70552), part of the Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project.5 The song "Battle Hymn of the Red River Rats", featured on the 1971 album, paid tribute to the US pilots in Vietnam. This included a line about the prisoners of war (P.O.W.s): "look around, there are a few empty chairs...some fight on from a cell".Sources1Erosonic: Dick Jonas↩2Library of Congress, American Folklife Center: Vietnam War collections guide (archived copy)↩3Library of Congress↩4Buffalo State University↩5Buffalo State University↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Goldust LPS-157 (LPS157 on the sleeve), stereo, 33⅓ RPM; front cover titled "FSH Volume II 'YGBSM'" with an engraved eagle clutching a stars-and-stripes shield against a blue panel and a Liberty Bell device. All selections written by Richard E. Jonas and published by Enchantment Music Company, BMI; each song is credited (Jonas) BMI on the labels. Musicians: Dick Jonas, guitar; Calvin Turbeville, steel guitar and banjo; Vic Gomez, drums; Emmit Brooks, bass; recorded at Emmit Brooks Recording Studio, Mesilla Park, New Mexico, engineer Emmit Brooks; Goldust Records Company, P.O. Box 998, Mesilla Park, New Mexico 88047. The back carries a photograph captioned "Dick Jonas, Fighter Pilot", showing him in flight suit in front of an F-4 Phantom nose, and a sleeve essay that opens "A fighter pilot is a lot like a little boy" and explains the pilot's motivation through his faith in America, his…

About the artist

Born Florida, USA. Currently Arizona, USA.

Themes

Patriotic · Military

In collections

US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years] · US Military & Veteran Songs