Lyrics

[Intro] Bill Withers wrote this song in 1973 Back then it was about the Vietnam War which my father went to And I understood it from the perspective of a kid who went to Desert Storm And now it's 2018 and there's some young man in some war, somewhere and he'll understand it his way And that's just what it is, I mean, one thing I really like about this song is it's not, really political It's really about the conditions of the people that go And the reasons that we go, is not political at all It has more to do with our immediate circumstances Like for mе, I joined 'cause my daddy joined and My daddy joinеd because he needed a job, you know? So like he said, "When they say, 'Go,' you just go" Half the time, you go into some country you never heard of Which is excitin' until you realize like, "Wow, this is really life and death," you know? And I'm sure it's the same way for the guy on the other side but Once you're in that situation, you're wearin' that uniform and he's wearin' that uniform And whether you're political or not You are in that situation right now And it doesn't matter what your political leanin's are at that time And that's what I really love about this song 'cause it speaks that The humanity, of soldiers, of humans on either side [Verse 1] I can't write left-handed Would you please write a letter, write a letter to my mother? Tell her to tell, tell her to tell, tell her to tell my family lawyer Try to get, try to get a deferment for my younger brother Tell the Reverend Watkins to pray for me I ain't gonna live, I don't believe I'm going to live to get much older [Refrain] Strange little man over here, Vietnam I ain't, I ain't never seen Bless his heart, ain't never done nothin' to He done shot me in my shoulder [Verse 2] Boot camp we had classes You know we talked about fightin', about fightin' every day And lookin' through rosy, lookin' through rosy colored glasses I must admit it seemed excitin', excitin' anyway Yeah, but somethin', somethin' they overlooked to tell me Bullets look better, I must say Brother, when they ain't comin' at you Then goin', goin' out the other way So please call up the Reverend Call up, call up the Reverend Harris And tell him to ask the Lord to do some good things for me Tell him I ain't gonna live, I ain't gonna live I ain't gonna live to get much older Oh Lord [Refrain] Strange little man over here, Vietnam I ain't never seen Bless his heart ain't never done nothin' to He done shot me in my shoulder [Outro] Oh Hey, yay Oh Mmm