Latitude 15.09°N (Longitude 108.5°E)

Annotation

Recorded in Bennington, Vermont, on 25 May 1970, the title "Latitude 15.09°N (Longitude 108.5°E)" referred to the geographical location of My Lai, as indicated on the map on the front cover of this LP. Written and conducted by Louis Calabro, born 1 November 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on 21 October 1991 in Bennington, Vermont. The lyrics reflected the well-known photographs of the massacre, taking an anti-war perspective: "deep in the red mud...yellow eye rolled out...dead children". The back of record said: "the oratorio was written in reaction to the incident at My Lai. My first thoughts on seeing the pictures of the 'alleged' massacre were of sheer horror and disbelief. I was appalled by the naivete and shallowness of all political systems, and by their instability to cope humanely and compassionately with the problems and conflicts which confront us. As with all victims in all massacres, the My Lai people will be outrageously forgotten and, as usual, man will have learned little or nothing. This work is no more than a simple bouquet in dedication to a people I have never known and yet have known all my life".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: The blood flowed like a flood, the light carved from the night, deep in the red mud / Asleep like the new bug, the yellow eye rolled out of sight / My lie laments a lullabye, dead children listen quietly, piously, as flies ooze from their eyes, and die / The dark earth quakes, her breath is fouled, the dead moon beams, all disemboweled / My lie is a lifesong born from wakes, the bright light heralds my fears / I dream in slow motion, the dollchild dreading his tears / My song is my lie, red ants fall from his ears, then die / The earth lies in a martian wake, and mothers also listen, as they watch for the mellow sky / While heaven rolls her last mistake, at the cry of the yellow eye / Dead shadows limp from fear, a dirge for the crimson ear, are striped with barbed wire / The amber eye, seared by the fire, no longer cares to cry, so let us sing Kyrie eleison, glory to God on high / The nights too long to sigh, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie, this is my song, my lie

Notes

Title referred to the geographical location of My Lai, as indicated on the map on the front cover of this LP Century 39359, stereo, "mfg. by Century Records"; both labels read "Latitude 15.09°N (Longitude 108.5°E), an oratorio by Louis Calabro", "Premiere Performance", Bennington Community Orchestra and Chorus, narrator Frank Baker, soloist Kimball Wheeler, recording engineer E. F. Auchter (Side 1 and Side 2). The front cover is a line map of Indochina with My Lai marked on the coast of South Vietnam. The back prints the oratorio's seven-part text by Louis Calabro, beginning "The blood flowed like a flood" and ending "So let us sing Kyrie eleison", alongside a photograph of the conductor before the chorus. In his note Calabro writes that the oratorio was written in reaction to the incident at My Lai, that "the My Lai people will be outrageously forgotten", and that the work is "a simple…

About the artist

Born 1 November 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on 21 October 1991 in Bennington, Vermont.

Themes

My Lai · Anti-Calley

In collections

My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]