Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Tin Soldiers lyrics

(Original song by Stiff Little Fingers)

He turned up to get a job

To show he wasn't scared

All wrapped up in that army crap

He thought he'd be prepared

Well at the age of seventeen,

He was forced to choose

Now at the age of twenty-one

He's in catch-22

He turned up for just three years

It seemed a small amount

But what they didn't tell him was

The first two didn't count

At the age of seventeen how was he to know?

That at the age of twenty-one

He'd still have more to go?

Tin soldier! He signed away his name!

Tin soldier! No chance of casual fame!

Tin soldier! Well now he knows the truth!

Tin soldier! He signed away his youth!

He turned up, to start out right

To do right by his son

Well now he waits

And he counts the days

That mark time since day one

At the age of seventeen

He did what he was told

Now at the age of twenty-one

There's still one-third to go!

Tin soldier! He signed away his name!

Tin soldier! No chance of casual fame!

Tin soldier! Well now he knows the truth!

Tin soldier! He signed away his youth!

(Left! Right! Left right left! Left! Right! Left right left!)

At the age of seventeen

He fall in line to

Now at the age of twenty-one

He still marches to

(One! Two! Three! Four!)

TIN SOLDIER! He signed away his name!

TIN SOLDIER! No chance of casual fame!

TIN SOLDIER! Well now he knows the truth!

TIN SOLDIER! He signed away his youth!

TIN SOLDIER! What is he fighting for?

TIN SOLDIER! To win a fucking war?

TIN SOLDIER! (Completely indecipherable lyric)

TIN SOLDIER! Arrgh yeah!!!!

Signed away his name

Signed away his name