Homesick Soldier

Annotation

"Homesick Soldier" (Voice of Country # VOC 132) by Big Jim Ashford - recorded on the Nashville, Tennessee based label, distributed by the larger country music label Stop. No further information on artist or label. Plight of the soldier, narrated from soldier's perspective. Feeling lonely in Vietnam - has not received letter from loved one in a long time, wonders whether she has left hi for someone else (a familiar theme in this area). Also reports on the death of the soldier's army buddy.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: I'm a lonely homesick soldier sitting here tonight in Vietnam and I'm so blue / And my eyes are blurred with tears as I try to write to you / Darling, I'm so homesick, don't know what to do / I keep looking everyday for a letter dear from you / But you haven't wrote me for so long / You promised that when I went away you'd write me everyday / Now I'm wondering if someone has taken my place with you / I'm a lonely homesick soldier, sitting here tonight in Vietnam and I'm so blue... / Darling, you remember my buddy Tom, we came here just a year ago tonight / We'd been together for so long he seemed just like my brother to me / They shot him yesterday, and as he fell dead right beside of me / I knew right then that I'd lost a friend cause a part of me died with him / Homesick soldier sitting here tonight in Vietnam, and I'm so blue

Notes

Voice of Country VOC 132 (also numbered VOC 221), 45 RPM, D.J. copy, turquoise label with wood-grain lettering; "Homesick Soldier" (Jim Ashford), 2:23, Bevis Music/BMI; Big Jim Ashford (vocal); "PRO: Fred Bevis"; "Distributed by Stop Records Inc., 809-B 18th Ave. S., Nashville, Tenn." [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

Soldier's Perspective