John Brown - Live at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - November 1994

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore
 His mama sure was proud of him
 He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all
 His mama's face broke out all in a grin
 "Oh son, you look so fine, I'm glad you're a son of mine
 Make me proud to know you hold a gun
 Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get
 We'll put them on the wall when you come home"
 That old train pulled out, John's ma began to shout
 Tellin' ev'ryone in the neighborhood
 "That's my son that's about to go, he's a soldier now, you know"
 She made well sure her neighbors understood
 She got a letter once in a while, her face broke into a smile
 She showed them to the people from next door
 They bragged about her son with his uniform and gun
 And these things she called a good old-fashioned war
 Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come
 Ceased to come for about ten months or more
 When a letter finally came saying, "Go down and meet the train
 Your son is coming back from the war"
 She smiled, and she went right down, she looked up and all around
 She didn't not see her soldier son in sight
 When all the people passed, she saw her son at last
 When she did, she could not believe her eyes
 Oh, his face was all shot off and his hand was all blown away
 And he wore a metal brace around his waist
 He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she didn't know
 While she couldn't even recognize his face
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 "Oh tell me, my darling son, tell me what they done
 How is it you come to be this way?"
 He tried his best to talk, but his mouth could hardly move
 And his mother had to turn her face away
 "Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war
 You thought it was the best thing I could do?
 I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud
 You wasn't there standing in my shoes"
 "Well, and I thought when I was there, Lord, what am I doing here?
 I'm tryin' to kill somebody or die tryin'
 But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close
 I could see that his face looked just like mine"
 "And I couldn't help to think, through the thunder rolling and stink
 That I was just a puppet in a play
 And through the roar and smoke, this string it finally broke
 And a cannonball blew my eyes away"
 ♪
 As he turned away to go, his Ma was acting slow
 Seein' the metal brace that helped him stand
 But as he turned to leave, he called his mother close
 And he dropped his medals down into her hand