Returning Home From Vietnam
1973 · Freckles A010T · USA
- Artist
- The Auditions
- Title
- Returning Home From Vietnam
- Release
- Returning Home From Vietnam / Get Set, Be Ready
- Year
- 1973
- Label
- Freckles # A010T
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- L. Hampton / M. Cox / R. Hazelwood
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs
The beautiful soul track "Returning Home From Vietnam" (Freckles Records # A010T) focused on a soldier's excitement about receiving his discharge from the army, as he told the listener: "my fighting days are finally over". Furthermore, he looked forward to seeing his sweetheart: "I'm marching...home baby, step by step". The group released the record on the small Chicago label Freckles, associated to the Crowntown Record Corporation, founded by Sidney Foster (convicted of murder a few years later, in 1977). The group appeared on the American television program _Soul Train_ in March 1973, at which the label promoted the single as "a political and social statement in music about the long war in Vietnam and the return of our G.I.s". The band dedicated the song to the returning soldier and the prisoners of war (P.O.W.s).1 Composed by Lonnie Hampton, M. Cox, & R. Hazelwood. Produced by Lonnie Hampton, Rex Alexander, and Darnell Glover - these three also arranged the song with Sidney Foster and Michael Taylor.Sources1A Critical History of Soul Train on Television (Christopher P. Lehman, 2008)↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Returning home from Vietnam / I know back home she still awaits me / Don't worry, don't you cry / Everyday will be alright / My fighting days are over, finally over / I've got my discharge today / Returning home from Vietnam / God knows girl I want to tell you about Vietnam, the battlefields I left behind me / Fighting days are over... / Every letter she wrote to me, I'd read it everyday / She's hoping this time I'll be home to stay... / I'm marching, one, two, three, four, coming home / Baby, step by step... / I've got my discharge today
Notes
Freckles Records (A010T)-A, ℗ 1973 Crowntown Record Corp., 8125 S. Bishop, Chgo, Ill. 60620; "Returning Home From Vietnam" (L. Hampton–M. Cox–R. Hazelwood), 2:40, Don Lon Music, BMI; produced by Rex Alexander, Lonnie Hampton and Darnell Glover; arranged by Michael Taylor, Lonnie Hampton, Rex Alexander, Darnell Glover and Sidney Foster. Yellow label with red print. [From the record sleeve and labels]