Hang Lt. Calley

Annotation

Country singer Smokey Harless sung for US military personnel stationed in Germany in the early 1970s, and he released a couple records on German based labels. This included the patriotic song "Men of Vietnam", and an anti-hippie track called "Place for Them Called Hell". The title of this song - "Hang Lt. Calley" (Pabst Music # PA 71006) - is misleading. It suggested that Calley should be punished for the massacre. But in fact Harless defended the actions of Calley, telling the government to "go ahead and hang Lt. Calley", so that they will not "feel so ashamed" for training American boys to kill, and then sending them off to war - in others words, Harless suggested the government used Calley as a scapegoat, to cover-up their own responsibility. Like other Calley songs discussed above, he made a comparison to the death of Jesus: "they'll nail him to the cross". The narrator also made a comparison on public attitudes towards indiscriminate killings - during the Second World War the US killed many civilians (men, woman, and children) when bombing Germany and Japan "at your applause and command". But, the narrator suggested, in Vietnam, and the My Lai killings, people considered such actions to be a massacre.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Well I heard them say today, they're going to hang him / It's either that or spend his life in jail / They taught him how to kill and how to hate his fellow man / They'll nail him to the cross because he obeyed their last command / I wonder if these people know what war is / I wonder if they every stop to think / You take a boy away from home and tell him he may die / He will do the best he can and never question why / So go ahead and hang Lt. Calley / Maybe then you won't feel so ashamed / A soldier has to fight and die or live and take the blame / I wonder if you folks can still remember the bombs we dropped on Germany and Japan / The woman and the children, the civilians young and old were blown to hell and back at your applause and command / And men will go on dying in the army / They will fight and die and never question why

Notes

Performed to troops stationed in Germany, all records released in Germany Pabst Music PA 71006 A, 45 UpM, stereo, GEMA; "Hang Lt. Calley" (S. Harless/F. Kersten/S. Harless), 2'58"; Fred-Kersten-Produktion; "Made in Germany by Pabstmusic Tongesellschaft Ferdinand H. Keller KG, Kaiserslautern". The picture sleeve front, also naming "Six Days", shows a noose hanging from a wooden beam inside a cell with a barred window, with "Hang Lt. Calley" in dripping red lettering. The back carries a note by producer Fred Kersten: on the day the Calley court-martial verdict was released Smokey sat down, drank a beer, got very angry and wrote the song "somewhere between the first and second beers", expressing the frustrations of the soldier "fighting in a no win war"; he is called "a true to life Nashville rebel". The sleeve is signed in ink by Smokey Harless. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Born on 28 Jun 1937 in Iaeger, McDowell Co, West Virginia, USA. Fied on 3 Feb 1996.

Themes

Patriotic · My Lai · Pro-Calley · Calley-Jesus · Calley-Order · Calley-Danger · WW2 · Japan · Pro-Soldier

In collections

European Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]