Morning In My Lai

Annotation

Another song mentioned in Billboard - "Morning in My Lai" (MGM Records # K14254), on 17 April 1971: "recorded by Nelson Truehart at the Nuggett Studios here (Nashville). The Sound 70 Singers supply the background music. The ballad, according to a spokesman, is also selling very fast".1 Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Truehart also wrote a song dedicated the P.O.W.s in late 1971, recorded by his children The Truehart Kids - If Your Dad Were a Prisoner of War (Mallard Records Inc. # MR-4).2 The narrator defended Calley, arguing that he followed his "order...to destroy the town". He asked people not to judge Calley and to back him up, because "after all he's fighting for you and me", which displayed support for the soldier, although did not provide a strong leaning towards the anti-war or patriotic side.Sources1Billboard, 17 April 1971↩2Billboard, 17 April 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs

Another song mentioned in Billboard - "Morning in My Lai" (MGM Records # K14254), on 17 April 1971: "recorded by Nelson Truehart at the Nuggett Studios here (Nashville). The Sound 70 Singers supply the background music. The ballad, according to a spokesman, is also selling very fast".1 Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Truehart also wrote a song dedicated the P.O.W.s in late 1971, recorded by his children The Truehart Kids - If Your Dad Were a Prisoner of War (Mallard Records Inc. # MR-4).2 The narrator defended Calley, arguing that he followed his "order...to destroy the town". He asked people not to judge Calley and to back him up, because "after all he's fighting for you and me", which displayed support for the soldier, although did not provide a strong leaning towards the anti-war or patriotic side. Sources1Billboard, 17 April 1971↩2Billboard, 17 April 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Up in the morning, soldiers all around / His only order was to destroy the town / Men and women, little girls and boys / Who was the enemy in his world? / His mind was so tired from fighting their way... / Listen people come to his plea / After all he's fighting for you and me / He's begging to someone please hear my cry... / How can judge a man when you don't know what went on? / Calley we're behind you, we want you to go on / Listen people, he played his part so well / Protecting others, now he will live through hell

Notes

Yellow MGM "Special Disc Jockey Record", "Not for Sale", K14254 (71N-51289), date-stamped Apr 30 1971; "Morning in My Lai" (Johnson), 3:08, Rondee Music, ASCAP; arranged by Dennis Burnside, produced by Terry Burnside & Jesse Tharp; MGM Records, a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. In an MGM Records company sleeve ("The Greatest Name in Entertainment!") bearing a typed label "Nelson Truehart / Morning in My Lai / Letter Sealed with Tears". [From the record sleeve and labels]

Themes

Patriotic · My Lai · Pro-Calley · Calley-Order · Calley-Justice · Pro-Soldier

In collections

My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]