The Rodeway Nine

Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs

A "GI movement" anti-war record (Paredon Records # P-1015), released on the label founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle". All the songs on this album were written and sung by active-duty GIs at the Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The group, formed in the spring of 1971, started their own publication called "Helping Hand".1 The song "The Rodeway Nine" referenced the My Lai Massacre, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), and General Westmoreland. Composed by Mark Lane and Jim Shaffer, the record booklet said the following about this song: "outside the Rodeway Inn where the Boise Chamber of Commerce were honoring General Westmoreland in August in 1971. Nine Covered Wagon members were arrested for 'disturbing the peace' and three others with 'interfering with the police'. This song played an important part in the state-wide campaign to win an acquittal for them. After the charges were finally dropped, some of the defendants filed charges against the policy on behalf of the Covered Wagon". So in the lyrics a group of Vietnam veterans confront Westmoreland - commander of US forces in Vietnam, 1964-1968 - holding him responsible for the massacre: "we pointed to the general, take him before others die, he was in charge of Johnson's My Lai". Sources1Covered Wagon Muscians - PAR01015↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs

The song "The Rodeway Nine" referenced the My Lai Massacre, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), and General Westmoreland. Composed by Mark Lane and Jim Shaffer, the record booklet said the following about this song: "outside the Rodeway Inn where the Boise Chamber of Commerce were honoring General Westmoreland in August in 1971. Nine Covered Wagon members were arrested for 'disturbing the peace' and three others with 'interfering with the police'. This song played an important part in the state-wide campaign to win an acquittal for them. After the charges were finally dropped, some of the defendants filed charges against the policy on behalf of the Covered Wagon". So in the lyrics a group of Vietnam veterans confront Westmoreland - commander of US forces in Vietnam, 1964-1968 - holding him responsible for the massacre: "we pointed to the general, take him before others die, he was in charge of Johnson's My Lai".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: What do we want? Peace, when do we want it? / Now...Boise's biggest, Boise's best, the place to dine, the place to rest... / One day in August in '71, businessmen met, businessmen fun, Westmoreland was their honored guest... / The wine they sipped, the general's brand turned into blood on foreign lands... / From mountain home, 40 miles or more, said we don't want your fucking war / The guest were simply horrified with the chants - not genocide... / They came to seize the criminal, we pointed to the general, take him before others die / He was in charge of Johnson's My Lai / They came with chains to end the song / But chains could never right the wrong / Nor jail cells, change their stand, while children die in other lands

Notes

Paredon P-1015; the front cover reads "Songs written and sung by the Covered Wagon Musicians, active-duty Air Force people, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho" over a photograph of marchers in the desert carrying banners reading "We are taking the GI out of genocide" and "Bring 'em home" (the booklet states the cover photo was taken during the forty-mile march from Mountain Home AFB to Boise in August 1971, on the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The 16-page booklet lists the members alphabetically (A1C John Carson, A1C Dave Davis, Sgt. Tom Derreck, Sgt. Patrick Henry, A1C George Herkert, A1C Al Kramer, A1C Joe Massaro, Carolyn Mugar, Vic Pacania, Airman Penny Rand, A1C Jim Schaffer, A1C Tom Spaulding) and opens with an introduction calling it the first GI anti-war project to produce its own record, urging listeners to write to the group and subscribe to its paper, The Helping Hand, Box…

About the artist

Group of active-duty US Air Force GIs based at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho (1971-72); recorded the antiwar album We Say No to Your War! (Paredon Records, 1972). [Source: Wikipedia / Discogs]

Themes

Anti-War · My Lai · LBJ · Westmoreland · Anti-Calley

In collections

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