Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier a song by Buffy Sainte-Marie on Foxsoundi — Free Music, Smart Streaming for Everyone

Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte-Marie

About Universal Soldier

According to the Universal Soldier Songfacts, Buffy Sainte Marie wrote this song in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in 1963 after witnessing wounded soldiers returning from Vietnam. She has described the song as being "About individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all." .

Universal Soldier Lyrics

[00:15.07] He's five feet two and he's six feet four
[00:20.06] He fights with missiles and with spears
[00:25.51] He's all of 31 and he's only 17
[00:30.93] He's been a soldier for a thousand years
[00:36.65] He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an athiest, a Jain,
[00:42.57] A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
[00:47.99] And he knows he shouldn't kill
[00:51.09] And he knows he always will
[00:53.81] Kill you for me my friend and me for you
[00:59.70] And he's fighting for Canada,
[01:02.86] He's fighting for France,
[01:05.44] He's fighting for the USA,
[01:10.10] And he's fighting for the Russians
[01:14.19] And he's fighting for Japan,
[01:16.63] And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way
[01:21.90] And he's fighting for Democracy
[01:25.17] And fighting for the Reds
[01:27.69] He says it's for the peace of all
[01:33.27] He's the one who must decide
[01:36.70] Who's to live and who's to die
[01:39.25] And he never sees the writing on the walls
[01:43.61] But without him how would Hitler have
[01:48.52] Condemned him at Dachau
[01:50.99] Without him Caesar would have stood alone
[01:57.01] He's the one who gives his body
[02:01.03] As a weapon to a war
[02:03.60] And without him all this killing can't go on
[02:08.44] He's the universal soldier and he
[02:12.95] Really is to blame
[02:14.91] His orders come from far away no more
[02:20.12] They come from him, and you, and me
[02:24.03] And brothers can't you see
[02:26.36] This is not the way we put an end to war
[02:34.42]

From the album: Flower Power Classics