♪ And he's fighting for Canada, ♪ he's fighting for France, ♪ he's fighting for the USA, ♪ and he's fighting for the Russians ♪ and he's fighting for Japan, ♪ and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way
♪ He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, ♪ a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew ♪ and he knows he shouldn't kill ♪ and he knows he always will ♪ kill you for me my friend and me for you
I wrote "Universal Soldier" in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all. Donovan had a hit with it in 1965.
♪ He's the universal soldier and he ♪ really is to blame ♪ His orders come from far away no more ♪ They come from him, and you, and me ♪ and brothers can't you see ♪ this is not the way we put an end to war.