Glad to Be Home
1972 · Seventy 7 106 · USA
- Artist
- Charles Smith and Jeff Cooper
- Title
- Glad to Be Home
- Release
- My Great Loss (Ashes to Ashes) / Glad to Be Home
- Year
- 1972
- Label
- Seventy 7 # 106
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Charles Smith
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
The song "Glad to Be Home" told the story of a veteran "just home from Vietnam". Composed by Charles Smith, and performed by Smith and Jeff Cooper on the Nashville, Tennessee label Seventy 7 Records (# 106). It was actually recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, produced by Dewey Vandiver, Warren Pratt, & Oscar Frank. The soldier told of "sitting in my foxhole, on a dark and rainy night". Meanwhile, "bullets and shells were falling". The soldier knew "somebody's son had died", and so he was grateful "to be home again". This song represented both war conditions and its impact on a veteran.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: I was talking to a young soldier the other day who was just home from Vietnam / And he told me a story about his experience while over there / And he said, Charles, I want you put the words into song: / Oh, I'm glad to be home again, oh yes I am / I was in my foxhole, on a dark and rainy night / Bullets and shells were falling, they were falling left and right / And then I heard a distant roar, soldiers were on fire... / I knew right then somebody's son had died / I was talking to a soldier who had a lot of plans / When he get back home, lord have mercy... / Ask me my name boy, and he said his name was Joe / Let me tell all you people out there, Joe won't be coming home
Notes
Seventy 7 Records 106 (JR 112), yellow label; "Glad to Be Home" (C. William Smith 100%), 2:56, Cape Ann Music, BMI & Blue Dawn Music, BMI; produced at Quad City Sound, Muscle Shoals, Ala., by Dewey Vandiver, Warren Pratt and Oscar Franck for JR Enterprises, Inc.; "Division of J R Enterprises, Inc., P.O. Box 6128, Nashville, Tennessee 37212". [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
Soul duo from Alabama - Charles William Smith, a soul/funk singer and songwriter, and Jeff Cooper, a soul performer, both members of the Alabama group The Entertainers. Their single 'My Great Loss (Ashes To Ashes)' b/w 'Glad To Be Home' appeared on Blue Dawn in 1971 and was reissued on Seventy Seven in 1972 and 1974; Smith wrote the B-side. [Source: Discogs]
Themes
In collections
Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs · US Combat Perspective Songs [War Years]