@paperbackwriter, paperback writer, Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look?
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hands send me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
You're just another soldier and you're doing the dying You're a symbol of a nation, so boy stop crying Hero of a war, such a man so brave A medal's worth nothing when you're lying in your grave
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep? And night time's just a jungle dark and a barking M.16? And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means? God help me I was only nineteen
Chapter one we didn't really get along Chapter two I think I fell in love with you You said you'd stand by me in the middle of chapter three But you were up to your old tricks in chapters four, five and six
I found her diary underneath a tree And started reading about me The words she'd written took me by surprise I didn't read it in her eyes The love she waited for was someone else not me Wouldn't you know it she wouldn't show it
Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role for the poor, yeah
I got an idea of something we can do with a gun Sink load and fire till the empire Reaps what they've sown
I tune in wit a bullet ta shut down tha devil sound Shut down tha devil sound Tha program of Vietnow Shut down tha devil sound Turn on the radio, nah fuck it turn it off Fear is your only god on the radio Nah fuck it, turn it off Turn it off, turn on the radio, nah fuck it turn it off Fear is your only god on the radio Nah fuck it, your saviour's my guillotine, crosses and kerosene Flex tha cerebellum, fire, uh! Somebody gotta shell 'em
War, children It's just a shot away, It's just a shot away War, children It's just a shot away, It's just a shot away
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no.
Whistles, shouts and more gunfire Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire Battlefield's nothing but a bloody tomb Be reunited with my dead friends soon Many soldiers eighteen years Drown in mud, no more tears Surely a war no one can win Killing time about to begin
