Born On The 4th Of July
1977 · Vanguard VSD 79395 · USA
- Artist
- Tom Paxton
- Title
- Born On The 4th Of July
- Release
- New Songs From The Briarpatch
- Year
- 1977
- Label
- Vanguard # VSD 79395
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
The song "Born on the Fourth of July" (Vanguard Records # VSD 79395), which Paxton wrote after reading Ron Kovic's book of the same title. Kovic served in Vietnam, and then worked as a peace activist back in the US, for the Vietnam Veteran's Against the War (VVAW), eventually speaking at the 1976 Democratic National Convention about the poor treatment of veterans.1 See the Oliver Stone 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July. Like the story of Kovic, it started with youthful patriotism, as the protagonist went to Vietnam, but he was wounded and returned home disabled. This book also inspired the Bruce Springsteen song "Born in the U.S.A.", according to his spoken-word intro on the 2018 album Springsteen on Broadway. Sources1Wikipedia: Ron Kovic↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: As a young man my dream was to be a marine / My flag was worth all I could bring it / The country felt young, I was born on the fourth of July / No one more loyal than I... / When I landed in 'Nam I was great Uncle Sam / I was fighting for God and my mother / And I knew what to do when my first tour was through / I signed up and went back for another... / In the damn DMZ it all ended for me / The fighting broke out and we scattered / One shot hit my heel, the last thing I'd feel / The next hit my spine and it shattered.... / Now I wheel myself down to the crossroads... / In my wheelchair for life, my mechanical wife
About the artist
Born 31 October 1937, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Folk singer-songwriter central to the 1960s Greenwich Village scene; his Vietnam-era songs include Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation (1965) and Jimmy Newman. [Source: Wikipedia]