My Lai

Annotation

The song "My Lai" (Taxim Records # TX 2038) by John York, a American singer/songwriter based in California, focused on the life of a Vietnamese child, called My Lai, born to an American serviceman who fought in Vietnam. The child lived in poverty, on the streets of Vietnam: "young girl dreaming under cardboard sheets". Meanwhile, her father watched the "sun...sinking over Palm Beach". The Vietnamese mother waited for a "letter from the States" to save them from destitution and provide then with a new life. But the father had "left you alone, My Lai, without a home". York named the child My Lai as a symbol of an American destroying, or abandoning, a child's life. The album notes said that this song "tells of a child born of the union between a Vietnamese woman and an American airman during the height of the war. As the child's hope of a better life in America proves forlorn, she is consigned to a life of poverty and despair. The girl's very name recalls the outrage in March 1968 that brought an end to the innocence in us all".1 The music contained oriental instrumentation (sounding a cross between Vietnamese and Chinese music), such as a guzheng (an 18 strings or more zither), dumbek (goblet drum), and xiao flute.Sources1cdbaby.com (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs

The song "My Lai" (Taxim Records # TX 2038) by John York, a American singer/songwriter based in California, focused on the life of a Vietnamese child, called My Lai, born to an American serviceman who fought in Vietnam. The child lived in poverty, on the streets of Vietnam: "young girl dreaming under cardboard sheets". Meanwhile, her father watched the "sun...sinking over Palm Beach". The Vietnamese mother waited for a "letter from the States" to save them from destitution and provide then with a new life. But the father had "left you alone, My Lai, without a home". York named the child My Lai as a symbol of an American destroying, or abandoning, a child's life. The album notes said that this song "tells of a child born of the union between a Vietnamese woman and an American airman during the height of the war. As the child's hope of a better life in America proves forlorn, she is consigned to a life of poverty and despair. The girl's very name recalls the outrage in March 1968 that brought an end to the innocence in us all".1 The music contained oriental instrumentation (sounding a cross between Vietnamese and Chinese music), such as a guzheng (an 18 strings or more zither), dumbek (goblet drum), and xiao flute. Sources1cdbaby.com (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Such a young girl dreaming under cardboard sheets / Their precious little hair banned to the streets / Nobodies caring if you love or die / I love you My Lai, yes I do, My Lai / Daddy never said much about your rules / The only thing he left you was a better? / Mummy once told you he was from the sky / But he left you alone, My Lai, without a home / Mamma's just a ghost who sits there and waits / Praying every minute for that letter from the States... / It's life and death, My Lai, don't hold you breath My Lai / As the sun goes sinking over Palm Beach / You watch the birds of freedom beyond your reach / Oh how I wish you could fly, straight to me My Lai / Across the sea, My Lai, wild and free, My Lai

Themes

My Lai · Anti-Calley · Vietnamese Girls

In collections

European Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs