DESCRIPTION:
Vietnam War: Soul, Gospel, & Funk Records: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrumm...
The song "You've Been Gone Too Long" (Seventy 7 Records # 77-104), a highly sought-after record by Northern Soul collectors - this issue usually sells for around $50-$100. Even more collectible is the original issue on Impel (# SS-AS-103), which sells for around $300-$1000, as of late 2012.

Ann Sexton, born Mary Burton in 1950, in Greenville, South Carolina, fronted a soul group called both "The Masters of Soul" and "The Soul Masters". In 1971 she met soul producer / singer-songwriter David Lee, who also owned a record shop in Shelby, NC, called Washington Sound. Out of this shop, was based Lee's label Impel, which released this song. It gained decent airplay, and Nashville DJ John "R." Richbourg picked up the song and distributed it on his national label Seventy 7, selling around 90,000 copies.

This song picked up on the "Jody" theme, as discussed with Johnnie Taylor's well-known song "Jody Got Your Girl and Gone". 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".

Sexton switched between narrating from the soldier's perspective to that of the soldier's girlfriend / wife. The soldier has noticed that something is wrong with his girl: "I know you've been running around", he tells her. But the girl says that "I found me a man who loves me better", adding the justification: "you've been gone too long". Then in the third person, Sexton tells the listener the famous line: "ain't no use in coming home, cause Jody got your girl and gone".

"The smile on your face baby is not there anymore
And the thrill of a kiss honey is not like it was before
I know you've been running around, I know
Because the look on your face is beginning to show
You might as well run on, baby you've been gone too long
Ain't no use in coming home, cause Jody got your girl and gone
The way you used to hold me when we were all alone
It's not there anymore because baby the thrill is gone
Somehow it doesn't matter because
I found me a man who loves me better
You've been gone too long"