God Bless the Working Man

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

Another country music, Vietnam related album by the Lonesome Valley Singers - in addition to Hello Vietnam: Country & Western War Songs (1965) and Men in the Green Berets (1966) - all released on the New Jersey based label Diplomat Records - part of the SPC (Synthetic Plastics Company), established in 1920s, a plastics company that produced budget music albums (usually sold for around 99¢).1 This album included the song "P.O.W." (Diplomatic # DS-2489). Narrated from the perspective a P.O.W., held for "three long and lonely years", he wondered why the war continued. He then went on to call for the indiscriminate bombing of Vietnam, to cause a lot of harm, and thus force the North Vietnamese into surrendering: "why not let the bombs fall where they may and let the enemy know we mean it". Sources1Billboard, 27 January 1962↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs

Another country music, Vietnam related album by the Lonesome Valley Singers - in addition to Hello Vietnam: Country & Western War Songs (1965) and Men in the Green Berets (1966) - all released on the New Jersey based label Diplomat Records - part of the SPC (Synthetic Plastics Company), established in 1920s, a plastics company that produced budget music albums (usually sold for around 99¢).1 This album included the song "P.O.W." (Diplomatic # DS-2489). Narrated from the perspective a P.O.W., held for "three long and lonely years", he wondered why the war continued. He then went on to call for the indiscriminate bombing of Vietnam, to cause a lot of harm, and thus force the North Vietnamese into surrendering: "why not let the bombs fall where they may and let the enemy know we mean it".Sources1Billboard, 27 January 1962↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Diplomat DS 2489, stereo, magenta labels: "DS 2489 A" Side 1 and "DS 2489 B" Side 2, "S.P.C. Newark, N.J. 07105, Made in U.S.A."; the labels credit "Glenn Walker And The Lonesome Valley Singers", the front cover "The Lonesome Valley Singers". Side A: God Bless the Working Man, The DJ's Reply, P.O.W., Oh Victory, Tell the Folks Back Home; Side B: God Bless the Boys in Uniform, Will We Ever See Peace Again, War-Time Taxes, The Silent Ones, The Politician and the War. The cover photograph shows a young woman in a gold hard hat bearing a U.S. flag decal and a U.S. flag T-shirt, posed in front of a steel-frame building under construction. The back carries a Diplomat Records statement ("fine recordings at a price everyone can afford"), a catalogue list of Diplomat LPs, and "A product of S.P.C., 88 St. Francis St., Newark, N.J."; no writers or times are printed. [From the record sleeve and…

About the artist

Anonymous budget-label studio group that recorded for Diplomat Records; Discogs links the name to aliases including Tex Johnson & His Six Shooters, Billy Bond and The Badmen. [Source: Discogs]

Themes

Patriotic · Soldier's Perspective · WW1 · WW2 · Counter-Culture & Hippies · Demonstration · Generation Gap

In collections

P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]