Luang Prabang is a song written by Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, originally recorded by Patrick Sky

Patrick Sky

Patrick Sky is a musician, singer and songwriter of Irish and Native American ancestry...

 for his album Songs That Made America Famous

Songs That Made America Famous

Songs That Made America Famous is a Patrick Sky album released on Adelphi Records in 1973. Sky recorded the album in 1971 but had difficulty finding a label to release it, as the satirical lyrics are explicit.-Side One:#"Fight for Liberation"...

(finally released in 1974). Van Ronk recorded a version himself for Going Back To Brooklyn

Going Back to Brooklyn

Going Back to Brooklyn is an album by American folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk, released in 1994.Although Van Ronk was primarily an interpretive singer of traditional folk and blues songs along with covers of the songs of others, he still wrote a number of songs over his long career...

in 1994. It is named for the city Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, or Louangphrabang , is a city located in north central Laos, where the Nam Khan river meets the Mekong River about north of Vientiane. It is the capital of Luang Prabang Province...

 in Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

. It is one of the few songs Van Ronk wrote himself. Patrick Sky discussed at a concert how Van Ronk was supposed to appear on the album but for some reason did not. At this concert in 1973, Sky and Van Ronk performed the song together.

The song is based on the tune "Byker Hill

Byker Hill

Byker Hill is a traditional English folk song about coal miners that has been performed by many contemporary acts. There are at least two different tunes to which the song is sung....

", but with lyrics about the Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, and a refrain at the end of each verse of the song "now I'm a fuckin' hero".