Johnny Come Lately
1988 · MCA MCA 1301 · USA
- Artist
- Steve Earle
- Title
- Johnny Come Lately
- Release
- Johnny Come Lately / Nothing But a Child
- Year
- 1988
- Label
- MCA # MCA 1301
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Country · Country Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Steve Earle, Americana, country-rock artist, born 17 January 1955 in Fort Monroe, Virginia, USA. He released the song "Copperhead Road" (Uni Records # UNI-7), a post-Vietnam War song concerned with veterans. It starts with the young man, from a moonshine bootlegging family, joining the army: "I volunteered for the Army on my birthday...done two tours of duty in Vietnam". It make a social-economic point about draft inequality: "They draft the white trash first 'round here anyway", suggesting that he would have got drafted if he hadn't have volunteered. Then it looked at the veteran back in the US, starting up a new business, possible selling marijuana, as indicated in the line: "seed from Colombia and Mexico". However, for the veteran, the sounds, smells, and visions of Vietnam still lingering on: "chopper in the air, I wake up screaming like I'm back over there" - a familiar reference to PTSD often seen in post-war songs. It had decent commercial sucess, reaching # 10 in the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks, # 45 in UK Singles, # 12 in Canada Top Singles, and # 23 in Australia charts. Less well-known on this album was the song "Johnny Come Lately", featuring the UK group The…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation
Johnny Come Lately (Earle, Steve). (MCA Records # MCA 1301) - UK release, also released as single in Germany. On the album Copperhead Road (Uni Records # UNI-7). Post-war, Vietnam vet returned home with medals. Recalled his grandfather telling him about the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" after WW2. Country rock. "I'm an American, boys, and I've come a long way Born and bred in the USA, so listen up close I've got something to say, boys, I'm buying this round Well it took a little while, but we're in this fight And we ain't going home 'til we've done what's right We're gonna drink Camden Town dry tonight.... But when Johnny Come Lately comes marching home With a chest full of medals and a G.I. loan They'll be waitin' at the station down in San Antone When Johnny comes marching home... Now my grandaddy sang this song Told me about London when the Blitz was on How he married grandma and brought her back home A hero throughout his land Now I'm standing on a runway in San Diego A couple Purple Hearts and I move a little slow There's nobody here, maybe nobody knows About a place called Vietnam"
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
American singer-songwriter, born 17 January 1955 at Fort Monroe, Virginia, raised in Texas ('Johnny Come Lately', 'Copperhead Road'). [Source: Wikipedia]