My Buddy Carl
1967 · Liberty LST-7547 · USA
- Artist
- Victor Lundberg
- Title
- My Buddy Carl
- Release
- An Open Letter
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- Liberty # LST-7547
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Spoken Word · Spoken Word
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation — US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Lundberg, an American businessman and radio newscaster in Michigan, took a conservative line on social issues. This record (Liberty Records # LST-7547) was a surprise, and huge hit, selling over a million copies in the first month of its release in November 1967. It contained the well-known monologue about draft card burners called an "An Open Letter to My Teenage Son" (Liberty Records # 55996), discussed above. On the back of the LP Lundberg said that:"his album contains thoughts...They will be cussed and discussed. They will be praised and protested... It is said that what we say is flag waving. It takes pride and love to wave a flag - hate and stupidity to burn one".The LP also contained another patriotic Vietnam War song, "In the Slime of Vietnam", in which Lundberg claimed to narrate a story from an ex-marine. In the first part the marine sought to represent all types of Americans - with different religious backgrounds, people with a family heritage based on other countries, representing the social-economic divide, and covering the various parts of the military. In the second part he turned his attention to the demonstrators, praising the American democracy and freedom that…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Civil Rights Songs
The other song "My Buddy Carl" took the form of a soldier writing to his Congressman, even though he was too young to vote, asking for him to introduce a bill on abolishing segregation, so that he could be in heaven with his white buddy Carl, whom he fought beside in the war zone. This track, like Johnny Wright's "American Power" (see above), is an interesting reflection of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
American radio personality, born 2 September 1923 in Grand Rapids, Michigan; a WMAX Grand Rapids newscaster whose spoken-word single 'An Open Letter to My Teenage Son' (1967) became a Top 10 hit; remained in Grand Rapids media until his death on 14 February 1990 (location not stated in sources). [Source: Wikipedia]
Themes
In collections
Civil Rights Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs