Freedom Bird
1967 · First Team S-0077 · Japan
- Artist
- Bill Ellis
- Title
- Freedom Bird
- Release
- Impressions of a Skytrooper
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- First Team # S-0077
- Format
- 7" · EP
- Language
- English
- Country
- Japan
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
About the artist
American singer-guitarist and Vietnam veteran. Drafted out of a rock band in San Francisco in 1968; became known as the 'singing rifleman' of the First Cavalry Division (A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry). Reassigned to Special Services in March 1969, he toured fire support bases performing for the troops; the division's Public Information Office pressed 30,000 records of his songs, including 'First Cav'. Performer on 'In Country: Folk Songs of Americans in the Vietnam War' (Flying Fish, 1991). [Source: In Country liner notes]