Strange Times

Got my draft notice yesterday
Like a ton of bricks come falling out
Can’t believe this is actually happening
I’m like, so down

Got to split this scene. It’s what Chook did
Nobody knew where he went off to
He comes around every now and then
Just staying cool... real cool
Like our very own underground hero!

Hell no, I won't go! -that was the point
The 'Pig Army' could draft me
Play their games and run me ragged down in some swamp in Georgia.
But when it came to Vietnam - Nuh-uh. Nope. No way, no how

So I went ahead and showed up
Did my time in basic training
Then one day orders came for Vietnam
Gave us a three-weeks furlough

So I headed back to campus
Got in touch with a professor with a connection
Toronto Anti-draft Board

Found my birth certificate, high school diploma
A letter a teacher wrote for me
Backpack full of clothes
And off to Toronto I went

4 AM at the bus terminal in Detroit
This sure enough is a bizarre sight
And I thought I was a freak
Too unreal

On a bus overnight to Toronto
A glow of lights in the distance
But only out one side of the bus
And you could just tell

Canada is nothing but one strip city looking in on the US

They check you in at the Toronto Anti-Draft Board
Line you up with a place to crash and a job for me on a painting crew.

They call it the point system
You get points for having a job
Points for education
Points for speaking English or French
Points for having a place to stay

Once you're set, you go back to the border
Re-enter and apply for landed immigrancy
In 5 years, you’re a citizen

Seventy-thousand of us
Seventy-thousand losers and freaks
Strung out on dope
Hated by the Canucks
We made our sacrifice for peace
Now we were completely out of the game

Victoria Day, Canada’s version of the Forth of July
Royal Canadian Mounted Police come parading down the street
The movie 'Easy Rider' was playing, so I went in to see it

Something about that flag on the fuselage of Fonda’s bike
Scene after scene, riding across America
And I realized that the U.S. was still the world’s stage for all causes and every great debate
A 2nd feature was about a Canadian unit in WWII
And I just knew I had to go and 'experience' it

So I went back, grabbed my stuff and caught a plane
Reported in at Seattle two-days late, but not yet AWOL
That night they showed us a flick about some nut case named 'Patton'

Three days later, I'm getting off a chopper at LZ Spear in Cambodia
Just got to Vietnam two days ago
And I thought the bus terminal in Detroit was strange

Getting off the chopper in Cambodia that first time
I just stood there. A line of choppers coming in
Body bags hanging below in tow.
I watched as they tagged the bodies on the ground
I looked at one of those blank faces and realized
The mother at home didn’t even know yet

And I wondered, I tried to picture, what might that mother be doing, right at this particular moment?

That first night it was a ground attack
People yelling- Get down- get down!
These Grunts with their beads, bracelets and beards.
Graffiti covered, sleeves torn off
They like totally blew me away

Some heavy, heavy dudes
And me an FNG
All I know is I can’t screw up
Please God don’t let me screw up

Strange how all that geopolitical stuff just kind of evaporates like steam in the jungle
After every contact they come around handing out wads of meaningless medals
But I'm just trying to survive
Trying to make it back to the World