I'm young and I'm strong

I've got this God forsaken world by the balls!

I've got a one-way ticket to freedom

Ain't got no one now gonna take it from me I was a soldier, age twenty-one

In a war I'm not sure what I was fighting for

And yet I turned from a boy to a man there

Goodbye to innocence and a sweet sixteen My whole life I could not arrange

My wicked ways I could never change

Don't try, don't try now to understand

For this is the ballad of a lonely man Close to me is a photograph

Of a family left far, far behind

At once I had love it slipped away from

I searched a lifetime but could not find In a hospital bed, I'm violently ill

Just one more drink nurse I swear to God!

I've got my St. Anthony and my whiskey

Yes I'm a veteran of three foreign wars! My whole life I could not arrange

My wicked ways I could never change

Don't try, don't try now to understand

For this is the ballad of a lonely man