Bring the Boys Home

Annotation

In the song "Bring the Boys Home" (Invictus # 9092), Freda Payne (born in Detroit, Michigan) emotionally pleaded with the politicians to end the war and send back the soldiers, noting the fathers and mothers left on the home front. It referenced the draft / call of Uncle Sam: "You marched them away...on ships and planes", and strongly attacked the purpose of the war, calling it "senseless" and "death in vain". Finally, Payne declared that "enough men have already been...killed". Influenced by the Philly Soul sound, with strings, the song had an upbeat tone, despite the serious and depressing lyrics, and it reached # 3 on the Billboard R&B charts, and # 12 on the pop charts. Composed by General Johnson (from the band Chairmen of the Board), Greg Perry, and Angelo Bond, all involved with the Detroit based label Invictus - founded by Holland-Dozier-Holland after they left Motown Records in 1967. The American Armed Force network banned the song in South Vietnam.1 Payne discussed the song in a 2011 interview with soulmusic.com, saying that: "it was the height of the Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon was the President of the Republican party, and I remember first hearing it play and listening to it I was like, wow. It brought tears to my eyes. It touched my heart. And so we went into the studio and did it, and it reached gold status....Back then, shortly after the song was released, the record company got a telegram from D.C. from the U.S. government saying that my song would not be played in South Vietnam because it would be giving aid and comfort to the enemy....But people liked the song; they picked up on it. And the song still got heard over in Vietnam, because I run into people who were over there who said they heard it over there, and they said the song was encouraging to them and helped them".Sources1Billboard↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs

In the song "Bring the Boys Home" (Invictus # 9092), Freda Payne (born in Detroit, Michigan) emotionally pleaded with the politicians to end the war and send back the soldiers, noting the fathers and mothers left on the home front. It referenced the draft / call of Uncle Sam: "You marched them away...on ships and planes", and strongly attacked the purpose of the war, calling it "senseless" and "death in vain". Finally, Payne declared that "enough men have already been...killed". Influenced by the Philly Soul sound, with strings, the song had an upbeat tone, despite the serious and depressing lyrics, and it reached # 3 on the Billboard R&B charts, and # 12 on the pop charts. Composed by General Johnson (from the band Chairmen of the Board), Greg Perry, and Angelo Bond, all involved with the Detroit based label Invictus - founded by Holland-Dozier-Holland after they left Motown Records in 1967. The American Armed Force network banned the song in South Vietnam.1 Payne discussed the song in a 2011 interview with soulmusic.com, saying that: "it was the height of the Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon was the President of the Republican party, and I remember first hearing it play and listening to it I was like, wow. It brought tears to my eyes. It touched my heart. And so we went into the studio and did it, and it reached gold status....Back then, shortly after the song was released, the record company got a telegram from D.C. from the U.S. government saying that my song would not be played in South Vietnam because it would be giving aid and comfort to the enemy....But people liked the song; they picked up on it. And the song still got heard over in Vietnam, because I run into people who were over there who said they heard it over there, and they said the song was encouraging to them and helped them". Sources1Billboard↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Father are bleeding, lovers are all alone / Mothers are praying, send our sons back home / You marched them away-yes, you did, on ships and planes / To the senseless war, facing death in vain / Bring the boys home (bring them back alive) / Turn the ships around, lay your weapons down / Can't you see 'em march across the sky / All the soldiers that have died / Cease all fire on the battlefield / Enough men have already been wounded or killed / What they doing over there...we need them

Notes

Invictus Is 9092 (45-10305PA), "Produced & Mixed for Greater & Sharper Sound Reproduction on the Air", mfd. by Invictus Records, Inc.; "Bring the Boys Home" (G. Perry – A. Bond – G. Johnson), Gold Forever Music, Inc., BMI, 3:08, produced by Greg Perry, Holland-Dozier-Holland Prod., Inc., "Taken from the LP 'Contact' SMAS-7307". The UK pressing, Invictus INV 515 (INV.515A), ℗ 1971, Ardmore & Beechwood Ltd., credits (Perry – Bond – Johnson) and "from L.P. SVT.1005 'Contact'", made in Great Britain by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Born 19 September 1942, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Themes

Anti-War · Nixon

In collections

Draft Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs