We Done Wrong!
1971 · Chicken Row CR-1002 · USA
- Artist
- Butch Christofer
- Title
- We Done Wrong!
- Release
- We Done Wrong! / We'll Have Fun
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Chicken Row # CR-1002
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Arthur K. Weathers
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
The song "We Done Wrong!" (Chicken Row Records # CR-1002) can probably be classified as a song about My Lai and Calley - although it does not refer to either of those. Released by Butch Christofer and The High Camp Society Band, written by Arthur K. Weathers, and produced by Group V Productions. In the track, the first person narration starts off with a soldier heading to Vietnam with an open mind. However, the platoon encounters the Vietcong, which results in the killing of the enemy, as they were taught to do. They dumped the bodies in a pit: "we met old charlie, Vietcong, shot him dead... rolled him over in a open hole". But someone stepped up to oppose the killings. Back in the US, with the support of the Congress, the soldiers are sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury, thus echoing the story of William Calley and the My Lai Massacre. The final line possibly made a reference to President Nixon. The narrators position, in terms of support for the soldier, the war, or anti-war was not clear, and thus placed in the soldier's perspective sector.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs
The song "We Done Wrong!" (Chicken Row Records # CR-1002) can probably be classified as a song about My Lai and Calley - although it does not refer to either of those. Released by Butch Christofer and The High Camp Society Band, written by Arthur K. Weathers, and produced by Group V Productions. In the track, the first person narration starts off with a soldier heading to Vietnam with an open mind. However, the platoon encounters the Vietcong, which results in the killing of the enemy, as they were taught to do. They dumped the bodies in a pit: "we met old charlie, Vietcong, shot him dead... rolled him over in a open hole". But someone stepped up to oppose the killings. Back in the US, with the support of the Congress, the soldiers are sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury, thus echoing the story of William Calley and the My Lai Massacre. The final line possibly made a reference to President Nixon.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Unknown - 'We Done Wrong!' b/w his own 'We'll Have Fun!' was cut with The High Camp Society Band (Chicken Row CR-1002, 1971, US); no biography found. [Source: Discogs]
Themes
My Lai · Anti-War · Nixon · Anti-Calley · Calley-Danger · Calley-Order · Calley-Justice · My Lai-Type
In collections
My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · US Combat Perspective Songs