Credited on the record as GySgt Bob Lay USMC.
The Marine's Ballad
1968 · BGL 1200 · Knoxville, Tennessee
- Artist
- Staff Sgt. Bob Lay
- Credited on the record as
- GySgt Bob Lay USMC
- Title
- The Marine's Ballad
- Release
- The Marine's Ballad / Make a Marine
- Year
- 1968
- Label
- BGL # 1200
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Songwriter
- Bob Lay
- Genre
- Fanfare · Fanfare
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
"Marine's Ballad" by Staff Sergeant Robert G. "Bob" Lay US military, war years, in country voices
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: In March of 1965, in the land of Vietnam / Things were going badly, and the enemy wouldn't run / Then, from the halls of the Pentagon, there came a cry for more / The president sent those mighty men of the US marine corps / From their landing craft that early morn, they stared into the dark / Soon the sun would rise, and the time to disembark / Their rifles at the ready, their bayonets held high / On that hostile enemy shore, a many marine would die / The story spread for miles around, the marines had come ashore / They hit the beach a running, as they did in wars before / Those mighty gallant men with their riffles and packs / They will charge right through the enemy, and never will turn back / Through the rice fields and the jungle, the enemy fled that day / They left their riffles, they left their food, they left their dead to lay / The marines had won the battle, and they never did turn back... / On the shores of many foreign lands, a far across the sea / The marines have always won their fame, against the enemy / They have always one their battles and they never have turned back
Notes
BGL Records BGL-1200, red, white and blue stars label; Side 1 "The Marine's Ballad" (GySgt Bob Lay USMC), time 2:22, Cajun Publishing Co. (BMI); Side 2 "Make a Marine" (GySgt Bob Lay USMC), time 2:12, Hillart Music Co. (BMI); "Produced by John Taylor"; "Dist. by: BGL Records - 1004 West Park Dr. - Knoxville, Tenn. 37921". The picture sleeve front, "The Marine's Ballad by GySgt. Bob Lay USMC", shows a red and blue drawing of a helmeted Marine with rifle above a map of the United States filled with photographs of Marines in action, landing craft and a parachutist; designed by Laura Wooten. The back shows a portrait of Lay in dress uniform and notes that he has entertained since high school, was among the first Marines in Viet Nam (April 1964), returned for a second tour in February 1968, and wrote these two songs to render credit to the Marines serving there; the record is dedicated "to…
About the artist
Robert G. 'Bob' Lay, American Marine and singer-guitarist who retired as a First Sergeant, USMC. As a staff sergeant in 1966, hearing Barry Sadler's 'The Ballad of the Green Berets' and wondering why the Corps had no answer, he wrote and recorded 'The Marine's Ballad' (set, with permission, to the tune of Johnny Horton's 'Sink the Bismarck') and 'Make a Marine'; popular with leathernecks, both have been re-released several times over the years, including digitally in 2014. [Source: Leatherneck Magazine (SoundCloud) / Apple Music]
Themes
In collections
US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years] · US Military & Veteran Songs