P.O.W.

Annotation

Another double-sided P.O.W. single, released in 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, in the garage rock genre. Both songs composed by J. Friscia. The a-side song "(Let My People) Get Me Out of Here" (Rotten Rat Records # R-1005/06) featured the sound-effects of gunfire and bomb exploding, as the narrator, a soldier who "fought for my country in Viet country" told the listener that he had been "captured". He appealed for people to help his family get him out of Vietnam, by putting pressure on the politicians. It also contained a little Cold War atomic weapon imagery: he wanted the military to use any means necessary, "even A-bombs", in order to secure his release. The second song, "The P.O.W.", narrated in the third person, sought to keep the P.O.W. issue fresh in people's minds, pointing out that "by the morning we forget the P.O.W.". The narrated said that it did not matter about being anti-war or pro-government, hawk or dove, but that people in the US "owe a debt...to our prisoner of war". Thus, he pleaded in the chorus for the US to bring home the P.O.W.s. The song also contained some personal biography of the fictional prisoner, saying that he had a two year old child that he had never met, and that his parents and "brave, courageous" wife suffered while the soldier remained in prison in Vietnam.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

Another double-sided P.O.W. single, released around 1970, in Brooklyn, New York, in the garage rock genre. Both songs composed by J. Friscia. The a-side song "(Let My People) Get Me Out of Here" (Rotten Rat Records # R-1005/06) featured the sound-effects of gunfire and bomb exploding, as the narrator, a soldier who "fought for my country in Viet country" told the listener that he had been "captured". He appealed for people to help his family get him out of Vietnam, by putting pressure on the politicians. It also contained a little Cold War atomic weapon imagery: he wanted the military to use any means necessary, "even A-bombs", in order to secure his release. Note that he released an updated version of this song for the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, called "(Let My People) Get Me Out of Here" under the artist title Liberty.The second song, "The P.O.W.", narrated in the third person, sought to keep the P.O.W. issue fresh in people's minds, pointing out that "by the morning we forget the P.O.W.". The narrated said that it did not matter about being anti-war or pro-government, hawk or dove, but that people in the US "owe a debt...to our prisoner of war". Thus, he pleaded in the chorus for the US to bring home the P.O.W.s. The song also contained some personal biography of the fictional prisoner, saying that he had a two year old child that he had never met, and that his parents and "brave, courageous" wife suffered while the soldier remained in prison in Vietnam.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — US Combat Perspective Songs

Another double-sided P.O.W. single, released around 1970, in Brooklyn, New York, in the garage rock genre. Both songs composed by J. Friscia. The a-side song "(Let My People) Get Me Out of Here" (Rotten Rat Records # R-1005/06) featured the sound-effects of gunfire and bomb exploding, as the narrator, a soldier who "fought for my country in Viet country" told the listener that he had been "captured". He appealed for people to help his family get him out of Vietnam, by putting pressure on the politicians. It also contained a little Cold War atomic weapon imagery: he wanted the military to use any means necessary, "even A-bombs", in order to secure his release. The second song, "The P.O.W.", narrated in the third person, sought to keep the P.O.W. issue fresh in people's minds, pointing out that "by the morning we forget the P.O.W.". The narrated said that it did not matter about being anti-war or pro-government, hawk or dove, but that people in the US "owe a debt...to our prisoner of war". Thus, he pleaded in the chorus for the US to bring home the P.O.W.s. The song also contained some personal biography of the fictional prisoner, saying that he had a two year old child that he had never met, and that his parents and "brave, courageous" wife suffered while the soldier remained in prison in Vietnam.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Garage Rock Songs

The second song, "The P.O.W.", narrated in the third person, sought to keep the P.O.W. issue fresh in people's minds, pointing out that "by the morning we forget the P.O.W.". The narrated said that it did not matter about being anti-war or pro-government, hawk or dove, but that people in the US "owe a debt...to our prisoner of war". Thus, he pleaded in the chorus for the US to bring home the P.O.W.s. The song also contained some personal biography of the fictional prisoner, saying that he had a two year old child that he had never met, and that his parents and "brave, courageous" wife suffered while the soldier remained in prison in Vietnam.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Did you ever stop and think about all the troubles that you have... / Well there's a fellow worse off than you / A fellow countryman at that / He's ten thousand miles away, don't know if he's coming back / The P.O.W., America please bring him back / For soon he'll feel like a motherless child / I ain't saying people are right or wrong invading a foreign land / All I'm saying here in my song is to give a helping hand / To our prisoner of war / To this man we owe a debt... / By the morning we forget the P.O.W.... / He's got a two year old child, a little boy he's never seen / He's got a papa whose heart is failed, and a mama... / But the one whose got it worse is his brave, courageous wife / Put the smile on each new morning, cries herself to sleep at night, oh P.O.W.

Notes

Rotten Rat Records 45-R-1006, D.J. Copy, black and cream label with a rat-on-a-motor-scooter logo; Rotten Rat Records, P.O. Box #209 Kensington Sta., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11218. "The P.O.W." (J. Friscia), 3:15, Ogfile Music Publ. Co., BMI; A GJM Production. [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

Patriotic · P.O.W.

In collections

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