Open Letter to My Dad
1967 · Ion 1-102 · USA
- Artist
- Marceline
- Title
- Open Letter to My Dad
- Release
- An Open Letter to My Dad
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- Ion # 1-102
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Spoken Word · Spoken Word
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
The song "An Open Letter to My Dad" (Ion Records # 1-102), an interesting answer song to Lundberg, narrated from the perspective of the teenage son's sister, which to-date is the only answer record identified that is narrated by a woman. The original press release from the Ion Record Co. announced the song as "an eloquent plea for peace". But following a letter of complaint from a Maine radio station disc jockey, an Ion Records' executive sent a personal apology from the company stating that "this is a very hard letter for me to write as I know we did a great injustice to all right thinking Americans by releasing such a record....We apologize...I am afraid we were unduly influenced by the writer and did not screen this material as we should have...We realize this was a big mistake in releasing such a record and we accept the fact that we can not be criticized too harshly...I very humbly apologize again for this release, but also know we have no excuse except stupidity". The track strongly condemned the war and needless napalming of innocent children, and therefore very much an anti-war song: "we recognise that all adults are... are seeking... to napalm innocent children in the…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Themes
In collections
Lundberg's "An Open Letter" & Answer Songs · Civil Rights Songs · Draft Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs