Credited on the record as Lord Laro acc. by The Society Playboys led by Bert Inniss.
Yankee Man in Viet Nam
1967 · National N.S.P. 188 · Trinidad & Tobago
- Artist
- Lord Laro
- Credited on the record as
- Lord Laro acc. by The Society Playboys led by Bert Inniss
- Title
- Yankee Man in Viet Nam
- Release
- Yankee Man in Viet Nam / Soul Finger
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- National # N.S.P. 188
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Songwriter
- K. Laro
- Genre
- Calypso · Calypso
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Lord Laro, born 29 February 1940 in Claxton Bay, Couva-Tabaquite-Talparo, Trinidad and Tobago, and currently based in Jamaica, released the calypso song "Yankee Man in Viet Nam" (National Record Company # N.S.P. 188), which at the beginning of the song suggested that people in the Caribbean country want to leave, to go to the more prosperous USA, and that the US was welcoming them, as there is "a shortage of men". It them moved into the novelty realm, as the narrator said that "when I land in Washington, girls coming from all around" to be with him.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Teachers, nurses, students, pulling a domestic scheme / For young...living in prosperity is there only dream / You'll could hear them talking... / This land got nothing for them / But in America there growns a shortage of men... / Say they are suffering in the land of yankee man in Viet Nam / Things are so bad they can't pass the Hanoi / Yankee man in Viet Nam / I get a letter from a long-term girl / She said we are all suffering in the land of / Yankee man in Viet Nam / Now they are begging the doctor, please send out some men / West Indies only with white views, meddling with them / Well if you see bacōnāla, when I land in Washington / Girls coming from all around / Shouting trade that man... / I had to make them stand in land / Yankee man in Viet Nam / Oh Laro please come and help / Yankee man in Viet Nam... / I write and explain the position to the steel band boys in expo / They say Canada is the same thing / Girls begging them not to go / Soon my time was up, and the Laro had to leave / Well if you see girls on the knees and they're begging... / That's why I overstayed my time / Because I wanted to treat them kind... / Oh yankee man in Viet Nam...
Notes
National Record Company label, P.O. Box 793, N.S.P. 188, 45 R.P.M., Side 1; "Yankee Man in Viet Nam" (K. Lara), Sparrow Music; Lord Laro accompanied by The Society Playboys led by Bert Inniss; rim text "All rights reserved – unauthorised public performance, copying, broadcasting forbidden"; dealer's stamp from Trinidad, West Indies. [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
Born 29 February 1940, Claxton Bay, Couva-Tabaquite-Talparo, Trinidad and Tobago. Currently Jamaica