War Hero
1980 · Banit 4057 · Dayton, Ohio
- Artist
- Toxic Reasons
- Title
- War Hero
- Release
- War Hero / Somebody Help Me
- Year
- 1980
- Label
- Banit # 4057
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Dayton, Ohio, USA
- Genre
- Rock · Punk Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Punk Rock group from formed in 1979 in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Disbanded in 1995. Membership included Bruce Stuckey (guitar, vocals), Ed Pittman (lead vocals, 1979-83), Joel Agne (guitar, vocals, 1979-81), Mark Patterson (drums, 1979-81), J.J. Pearson [aka Jimmy Joe] (drums, vocals, 1980-95), and Rob Lucjak [aka Snott] (bass, guitar, vocals, 1980-85). They released the song "War Hero" (Banit Records # 004057), which took an anti-war position, with the narrator saying he did not want to be a hero, and "don't want a movie made about me" - another reflection of the cultural impact of Vietnam War films. The song noted PTSD: "my best friend just lost his head". The song also referenced Cambodia, probably in relation to the Vietnam War, or could also be the Cambodian Civil War or Cambodian Genocide: "Ten thousand dead in Phenom Phen". Also featured on the 1994 compilation Bloodstains Across the Midwest (BLOODSTAINS 3). They also released the song "White Noise" on the 1982 album Independence, discussed below, about El Salvador, which referenced the Vietnam War.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: I don't wanna be no war hero / Don't want a movie made about me / I don't wanna be no war hero / Just get away from the madness I see / Ten thousand dead in Phenom Phen / Happens every day again and again / I didn't wanna come here in the first place / Didn't wanna destroy another race / Sent me over here when I was a boy / Taught me to kill with their government toy / Now the G.I.'s, they're all dead / And my best friend just lost his head
Notes
Beer City Records pressing, Side One, stereo 45 RPM; "War Hero", 1:49, © Toxic Reasons, Toxic Tunes, BMI. Picture sleeve front: photograph of a boy beside a bombed-out brick house, with "War Hero" and "Toxic Reasons". Back: photograph of rows of military headstones in a cemetery; "Produced by Tony Fogle", "Recorded Jan 1980"; Beer City Skateboards/Records logo and barcode. [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
American punk rock band formed in 1979 in Dayton, Ohio; recorded anti-war material incl. 'Agent Orange'. [Source: Wikipedia]