Me and Crippled Soldiers

Annotation

Me and Crippled Soldiers (Haggard, Merle) Curb Records # NR-76846 Country music. Vietnam reference. On the album Blue Jungle (Curb Records # D2-77313) "In 1989, Haggard recorded a song, "Me and Crippled Soldiers Give a Damn", in response to the Supreme Court's decision to allow flag burning under the First Amendment. After CBS Records Nashville avoided releasing the song, Haggard bought his way out of the contract and signed with Curb Records, which was willing to release the song. Of the situation, Haggard commented, "I've never been a guy that can do what people told me...It's always been my nature to fight the system".12 And only me and crippled soldiers give a damn"Sources1Wikipedia: Merle Haggard↩2The New York Times: Pop jazz a maverick upholding traditional values↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Now that it's alright to burn the stars and stripes / Yes, nobody really needs old Uncle Sam / Might as well burn the bill of rights as well / And let our country go straight to hell / Only me and crippled soldiers give a damn / Should they throw away their purple hearts and hide their uniforms / And be proud to hear old glories on the ground / Somebody said, they'd take us without firing a shot / I don't know if they will or not / But only me and crippled soldiers give a damn / Has the holocaust been so long? Is Hitler really gone / As we burn our only cause for Vietnam? / There's the mom who lost her son / Is this the freedom that we won? / For only me and crippled soldiers give a damn / I've been known to wave the flag before / And saddened when we went to war / Fighting for the symbol of our land / For all the wars we fought and won to keep old glory waving / Today, they ruled to burn old glory down / And only me and crippled soldiers give a damn

Notes

Curb Records NR-76846 (NR-2-76846), side 2, white label with blue speckled centre; "Me and Crippled Soldiers" (Merle Haggard), 3:12, Inorbit Music, BMI; produced by Mark Yeary and Merle Haggard; © & ℗ 1990 Curb Records; "Mfd. by Curb Records, 3907 W. Alameda Ave., Burbank, CA 91505. Dist. by CEMA Distribution". [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Born 6 April 1937, Oildale, California, USA. Country singer-songwriter and pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound (Okie from Muskogee, The Fightin' Side of Me). Died 6 April 2016 at his home in Palo Cedro, California, USA. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Patriotic · Vet · Purple Heart · Medals · Hitler