Sam Stone

Sam Stone came home
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas

The time that he served
Had shattered all his nerves,
Left a little shrapnel in his knee

But the morphine eased the pain
And the grass grew around his brain
And gave him all the confidence he lacked
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back

There's a hole in daddy's arm
Where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long
On broken radios, oh-oh

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long
Went to work,
He spent his last dime

Sam, he took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime

And the gold roared through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose
While the kids ran around wearing other people's clothes

There's a hole in daddy's arm
Where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long
On broken radios, oh-oh

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls, sitting in a chair

He played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air

But life had lost its fun
There was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought in the GI bill
For a flag-draped casket on a local hero's hill

There's a hole in daddy's arm
Where all the money goes
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose
Little pitchers have big ears
Don't stop to count the years
Sweet songs never last too long
On broken radios, oh-oh