Navy Blues

Annotation — Draft Songs

Country singer Jerry Reed (1937-2008) released the patriotic Vietnam song "Fightin' for the U.S.A." (RCA Victor # 47-8730). The b-side, "Navy Blues", presumably related to the Vietnam conflict in light of the a-side, was an instrumental number, with acoustic guitar finger-picking and an up-tempo drum beat. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, his career mainly centred around Nashville, Tennessee, and this track had a country-rock sound. Billboard said on its release, in December 1965, that it's "a rocker with strong message lyric. Swinging dance beat and the exciting duel-track vocal has a winning sound from start to finish. Could prove a monster!"1 Well, it did not prove to be a chart monster, but it did have strong lyrics. A man received his draft card and went to fight in Vietnam for "glory and the USA". The narrator described his experiences: "crawling through the swamps...bullets flying right and left". The soldier then sent a message to the anti-war protesters: "take your complaints to Uncle Sam" - because the soldiers were just following orders and doing their duty. At the end of the guitar solo, the listener discovered that the soldier had been captured by the Vietcong - the National Liberation Front (NFL), the political and military resistance to the US and South Vietnamese government from within South Vietnam: "I got captured by the Vietcong, for a while I thought I was gonna get hung, but they just beat me...stretched me and squashed me, tried to brainwash me, but I snuck away". So this goes down as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) song, one of the first Vietnam singles to address this issue.Sources1Billboard, December 1965↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

Country singer Jerry Reed (1937-2008) released the patriotic Vietnam song "Fightin' for the U.S.A." (RCA Victor # 47-8730). The b-side, "Navy Blues", presumably related to the Vietnam conflict in light of the a-side, was an instrumental number, with acoustic guitar finger-picking and an up-tempo drum beat. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, his career mainly centred around Nashville, Tennessee, and this track had a country-rock sound. Billboard said on its release, in December 1965, that it's "a rocker with strong message lyric. Swinging dance beat and the exciting duel-track vocal has a winning sound from start to finish. Could prove a monster!"1 Well, it did not prove to be a chart monster, but it did have strong lyrics. A man received his draft card and went to fight in Vietnam for "glory and the USA". The narrator described his experiences: "crawling through the swamps...bullets flying right and left". The soldier then sent a message to the anti-war protesters: "take your complaints to Uncle Sam" - because the soldiers were just following orders and doing their duty. At the end of the guitar solo, the listener discovered that the soldier had been captured by the Vietcong - the National Liberation Front (NFL), the political and military resistance to the US and South Vietnamese government from within South Vietnam: "I got captured by the Vietcong, for a while I thought I was gonna get hung, but they just beat me...stretched me and squashed me, tried to brainwash me, but I snuck away". So this goes down as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) song, one of the first Vietnam singles to address this issue. Sources1Billboard, December 1965↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

RCA Victor 47-8730, white "Not for Sale" promotional label; producer Chet Atkins; Lowery Music Co. Inc., BMI. "Fightin' for the U.S.A." (Jerry R. Hubbard), SWKM 2862, 2:05, marked "Plug Side"; flip side "Navy Blues" (Jerry R. Hubbard), SWKM 2863, 1:56. Made in U.S.A. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

American country singer-guitarist, born 20 March 1937 in Atlanta, Georgia; died 1 September 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Patriotic

In collections

Draft Songs · P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]