I'm young and I'm strong I've got this God forsaken world by the balls! I've got a one-way ticket to freedom Ain't got no one now gonna take it from me
I was a soldier, age twenty-one In a war I'm not sure what I was fighting for And yet I turned from a boy to a man there Goodbye to innocence and a sweet sixteen
Chorus: My whole life I could not arrange My wicked ways I could never change Don't try, don't try now to understand For this is the ballad of a lonely man
Close to me is a photograph Of a family left far, far behind At once I had love it slipped away from I searched a lifetime but could not find
In a hospital bed, I'm violently ill Just one more drink nurse I swear to God! I've got my St. Anthony and my whiskey Yes I'm a veteran of three foreign wars!