Vietnam War: Soul, Gospel, & Funk Records: https://vietnamwarsongproject.com/#/list/soul-gospel-funk-songs
This record on the site: https://vietnamwarsongproject.com/#/song/VWSP1718
Soul song "Mail Call Time" (Bamboo Records # BMB 114) - another song, like "From Vietnam With Love" by Charles E. Scott that represented the military practice in which soldiers assemble to receive mail, with each soldier's name called out to pick up the mail. Performed by the soul duo Mel Hardin & Tim McPherson, cousins, both born in Mississippi, US, and based in Chicago with Bamboo Records. They later moved to Stax Records in 1972 with the single ""Starting All Over Again". The song started in a first person narration, with a soldier expressing the desire to receive mail. The narrator then made a plea in the third person: "girls, pick up your pen, and drop your man a line".
Note the reference to the "Jody" theme: "don't let Jody take up all of your time" - suggesting that the soldier's sweetheart may have been involved with another man ("Jody") in his absence. The term "Jody" originated from "Joe the Grinder" (dated c.1939) - a mythical man in blues and jazz tunes who seduced the wives and girlfriends of soldiers, prisoners, and those away from home (for work or whatever). "Grinder" was an old slang word for sex (dated c.1647). It is thought to have been introduced into the army by African-Americans during the Second World War, used in military cadences (marches), such as "ain’t no use in going home, Jody’s got your girl and gone" - shouted out by a military officer, and repeated by the group of marching soldiers in unison. This type of marching later got the nickname of "jodies" or "jody calls".
"I'll be so glad when mail call time comes around...
I'm going to sit right down on this cold, wet muddy
Ground and I'm gonna read, when mail call time
Comes around, oh yes I will, girls, pick up your pen
And drop your man a line, don't let Jody take up all
Of your time, the only thing that's on your man's mind
Are the letters he gets from the girl he left behind
And he's gonna wake up in the morning with mail call
On his mind, oh yes he will, he'll be so glad when
Mail call time comes around, he's gonna sit right down
On this cold, wet, muddy ground, and he's gonna read"
