My Daddy Is a Prisoner (Somewhere in Viet Nam)

Annotation — P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs

In 1972 Little Gary Dee also released the P.O.W. song "My Daddy Is a Prisoner (Somewhere in Viet Nam)" (Renegade Records # 5608). As noted above this artist also released the single "Mr. Where Is Viet-Nam" (Nu-Fax # 101) with Bob Necaise, credited to "Bob Necaise and 'Lil' Gary D with the Delta Sho-Men", released around the same time. The song described the narrator as "a little boy not yet four years old" according to the lyrics. In that song a man spotted a young child in a playground crying because he missed his father, fighting in Vietnam. He wanted the man to help him visit his father in the war zone, while not really understanding the conflict in Vietnam or even the location of the country. The narration switched between the adult, Bob Necaise, and the child, Little Gary Dee. This song took an identical format, and mirrored the same story. A man walking through a "sleepy Southern town" saw a little boy whose "eyes were big and sad". The boy explained that his "daddy fights for freedom and keeps things safe for me". However the North Vietnamese "keep them locked up". So the boy took a political position on the objectives of the war, and thereby displayed an understanding of…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

Little Gary Dee was a child singer who also recorded the Vietnam single "Mr. Where Is Viet-Nam" (Nu-Fax 101, 1971) with Bob Necaise, credited as Bob Necaise & 'Lil' Gary D with the Delta Sho-Men. [Discogs]

Themes

P.O.W. · Child · Home Front Perspective

In collections

US Domestic Perspective Songs [War Years] · Children on Record · P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs