Viet Nam
Bigg Tyme 2725 · USA
- Artist
- J.C. Sims
- Title
- Viet Nam
- Release
- Viet Nam / Walking in the Shadow of a Memory
- Label
- Bigg Tyme # 2725
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
"Viet Nam" (Bigg Tyme # 2725) - nothing known about artist or label, no location, no date. Probably late 60s, early 70s. Country. 17 year old volunteered for army, lied about his age. Narrating from Vietnam, just shot, and regretting taking on a fake age and name, and not writing more often to his family. Impact of war: soldier's perspective. "Now it's a long, long way back home Left my mother and my dad impatiently sad Now it's a long, long way back home I left home at the age of seventeen... Thought I'd go around the world and be a king Oh how I did wrong, didn't write or even phone I enlisted, here I am in Vietnam With a bullet inside, I'm feeling numb A lied about my age and name, now I'm so ashamed... Now listen boys, if you ever leave home Be sure to write one a week, maybe more Here I lay so ashamed, maybe die with another's name
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
J.C. Sims was a recording name of Jerrell Calvin Sims, an American singer and songwriter who also worked as Jerry Sims, as one half of the duo Jerry & Jan with Jan Rosso, as leader of Jerry Sims And His High Lites, and under the aliases Jerry 'Shorty' Slims and Jerry Goldfinger. "Viet Nam", which he co-wrote with Ratliff, was issued as by J. C. Sims on Bigg Tyme Records 2725 backed with 'Walking In The Shadow Of A Memory', published by Provacative Music and mastered at Alco Research and Engineering Co.; Bigg Tyme was a country label operating from Modesto and later Delhi, California, and its…