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Bummer
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Chapin Harry
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His mama was a midnight woman
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His daddy was a drifter drummer
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One night they put it together
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Nine months later came the little black bummer
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He was a laid back lump in the cradle
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Chewing the paint chips that fell from the ceiling
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Whenever he cried he got a fist in his face
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So he learned not to show his feelings
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He was a pig-tail puller in grammer school
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Left back twice by the seventh grade
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Sniffing glue in Junior High
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And the first one in school to get laid
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He was a weed-speed pusher at fifteen
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He was mainlining skag a year later
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He'd started pimping when they put him away
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In jail he changed from a junkie to a hater
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And just like the man from the precinct said:
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"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
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A bummer like that is better of dead
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Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."
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They threw him back on the street, he robbed an A & P
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He didn't blink at the buddy that he shafted
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And just about the time they would have caught him too
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He had the damn good fortune to get drafted
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He was A-One bait for Vietnam, you see they needed more bodies in a hurry
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He was a cinch to train cause all they had to do
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Was to figure how to funnel his fury
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They put him in a tank near the D M Z
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To catch the gooks slipping over the border
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They said his mission was to Search and Destroy
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And for once he followed and order
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One sweat-soaked day in the Yung-Po Valley
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With the ground still steaming from the rain
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There was a bloody little battle that didn't mean nothing
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Except to the few that remained
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You see a couple hundred slants had trapped the other five tanks
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And had started to pick off the crews
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When he came on the scene and it really did seem
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This is why he'd paid those dues
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It was something like a butcher going berserk
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Or a sane man acting like a fool
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Or the bravest thing that a man had ever done
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Or a madman blowing his cool
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Well he came on through like a knife through butter
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Or a scythe sweeping through the grass
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Or to say it like the man would have said it himself:
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"Just a big black bastard kicking ass!"
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And just like the man from the precinct said:
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"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
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A bummer like that is better of dead
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Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."
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When it was over and the smoke had cleared
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There were a lot of V C bodies in the mud
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And when the rescued men came over for the very first time
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They found him smiling as he lay in his blood
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They picked up the pieces and they stitched him back together
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He pulled through though they thought he was a goner
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And it force them to give him what they said they would
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Six purple hearts and the Medal of Honor
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Of course he slouched as the chief white honkey said:
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"Service beyond the call of duty"
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But the first soft thought was passing through his mind
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"My medal is a Mother of a beauty!"
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He got a couple of jobs with the ribbon on his chest
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And though he tried he really couldn't do 'em
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There was only a couple of things that he was really trained for
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And he found himself drifting back to 'em
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Just about the time he was ready to break
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The V A stopped sending him his checks
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Just a matter of time 'cause there was no doubt
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About what he was going to do next
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It ended up one night in a grocery store
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Gun in hand and nine cops at the door
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And when his last battle was over
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He lay crumpled and broken on the floor
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And just like the man from the precinct said:
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"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
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A bummer like that is better of dead
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Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."
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Well he'd breathed his last, but ten minutes past
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Before they dared to enter the place
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And when they flipped his riddled body over they found
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His second smile frozen on his face
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They found his gun where he'd thrown it
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There was something else clenched in his fist
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And when they pried his fingers open they found the Medal of Honor
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And the Sergeant said: "Where in the hell he get this?"
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There was a stew about burying him in Arlington
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So they shipped him in box to Fayette
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And they kind of stashed him in a grave in the county plot
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The kind we remember to forget
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And just like the man from the precinct said:
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"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
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A bummer like that is better of dead
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Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head
Harry Chapin - Cat's In The Cradle (Offi...
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