Front Line (1982 Musiquarium Version)

I am a veteran of the war

I up and joined the army back in 1964

At sixteen I just had to be a man at any cost

I volunteered for Vietnam where I got my leg shot off

I recall a quote from a movie that said "Who's more a man

Than a man with a reason that's worth dying for"

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to getting ahead

They gave me a uniform and a tiny salty pill

To stop the big urge I might have for the wrong kind of thrill

They put a gun in my hand and said, "Shoot until he's dead

But it's hard to kill when 'please, I'm your friend' echoes through your head

Brought up in church taught no man should take another's life

But then put in a jungle where life has no price

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to getting ahead

Back in the world the paper reads today

Another war is in the brewing

But what about the lives of yesterday

And the many happy families that have been ruined

My niece is a hooker and my nephew's a junkie too

But they say I have no right to tell them how they should do

They laugh and say "Quit bragging" 'bout the war you should never have been in

But my mind is so brain-washed I'd probably go back and do it again

I walk the neighborhood parading my purple heart

With a fear of agent orange that no one will stop, no

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to getting ahead, yeah

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

Now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to getting ahead

Could you believe I do?

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

They had me standing on the front line

But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to getting ahead