Songwriter: Donna Dupuy John Healy Bertie Higgins
Producer: Scott MacLellan Sonny Limbo
The soldier boy in Hanoi
Got by by staying high
Back in '68
It was the only way that he could cope
You learned to kill or you learned to die
The strong and the stoned seem to survive
So between the bong and the blood and the bullets
He chose to live while he smoked his hope
At 21, he laid down his gun
A hero in Nixon's lie
There was pressure on the president
To bring the boys back home
Because he'd played his part
They gave him a broken purple heart
Then they cut him loose to find his way
Soon forgotten and alone
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the V.A
His old friends had found a new flame
And the white lady was her name
They made the introduction
They taught him how to connect
Columbia to Peru
He was the best at flying through
Wearing Guccis on his feet
And gold around his neck
One night it all came down
When he was Miami bound
He took a fall from a 747
Behind his mule
And though it took some time
To find the Judas who dropped the dime
He bailed out long enough
And he wasted the fool
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the D.E.A
When he finally made parole
He left the last of his mortal soul
In the solitary heart
Of a Florida cell
But he knew he wasn't beat
His education was complete
From the lesson learned
From yet another lifetime in hell
Looking back for one last time
Thinking 'bout how he'd bought up all their lines
And paid through the nose
For a lovely bunch of lies
He found he was his only friend
Bound to escape the bitter end
Left alone again, he started pushing hard for paradise
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At F.L.A
Now he's hiding from the heat
In a mansion on Martinique
It's so much cooler down there
Counting cash under a paddle fan
He's forgotten old friends and jail
To hell with the Ho Chi Minh Trail
He's just another lonely, quiet and rich
Ex-American
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
Got by by staying high
Back in '68
It was the only way that he could cope
You learned to kill or you learned to die
The strong and the stoned seem to survive
So between the bong and the blood and the bullets
He chose to live while he smoked his hope
At 21, he laid down his gun
A hero in Nixon's lie
There was pressure on the president
To bring the boys back home
Because he'd played his part
They gave him a broken purple heart
Then they cut him loose to find his way
Soon forgotten and alone
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the V.A
His old friends had found a new flame
And the white lady was her name
They made the introduction
They taught him how to connect
Columbia to Peru
He was the best at flying through
Wearing Guccis on his feet
And gold around his neck
One night it all came down
When he was Miami bound
He took a fall from a 747
Behind his mule
And though it took some time
To find the Judas who dropped the dime
He bailed out long enough
And he wasted the fool
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the D.E.A
When he finally made parole
He left the last of his mortal soul
In the solitary heart
Of a Florida cell
But he knew he wasn't beat
His education was complete
From the lesson learned
From yet another lifetime in hell
Looking back for one last time
Thinking 'bout how he'd bought up all their lines
And paid through the nose
For a lovely bunch of lies
He found he was his only friend
Bound to escape the bitter end
Left alone again, he started pushing hard for paradise
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At F.L.A
Now he's hiding from the heat
In a mansion on Martinique
It's so much cooler down there
Counting cash under a paddle fan
He's forgotten old friends and jail
To hell with the Ho Chi Minh Trail
He's just another lonely, quiet and rich
Ex-American
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
(Never looking back)
At the U.S.A
The veteran of the war
But wars are all the same
Another pawn, another believer
Another loser in the game
But losers learn to be winners
When they learn to refuse to play
And now he's never looking back
more tracks from the album
From the album
- Pirates and Poets (1983)
Bertie Higgins popular songs
- Casablanca
- Key Largo
- Leah
- Down at the Blue Moon
- The Tropics
- The Heart Is the Hunter
- She’s Gone to Live on the Mountain
- Candledancer
- Just Another Day in Paradise
- Port O’ Call (Savannah ’55)
- Pirates and Poets
- When You Fall in Love (Like I Fell in Love with You)
- Tokyo Joe
- As Time Goes By
- Under a Blue Moon
- Beneath the Island Light
- Only Yesterday
- Marianna
- Pleasure Pier
- Never Looking Back
- As Time Goes By (Reprise)
- Miami Moon
- Jamaica Farewell
- Kokomo