The Mercenary Songtext
von Bruce Cockburn

Um. A long time ago I was a music student
You wouldn′t necessarily know that now
But I was, actually
I had serious intentions
And thought I was gonna be composing for large jazz ensembles
And I studied that
And I studied in Boston
Er, for a couple of years
(And you decided to keep it all for yourself)
Hah! Did you guys hear that?
He said "And you decided to keep it all for yourself"
Er, that's the kind of prick I am
I may not be able to sing now
Ok, so he′s going to stop talking now
So that's, that's going to be alright
And it was the mid-sixties
And it was the Vietnam period
(Yow)
Is that because you were there or you weren′t there?
Like, what are we celebrating here?


Heh. Well. Anyway
I got offered a summer job
I lasted, well, almost two years at, at music school
But, and in between the two school seasons there of course there was a summer
And er, um, and I got offered a job
Which I came very close to accepting
For a minute. Er
And the job was with a guy that came back from Vietnam
And he was a friend of a dorm mate of mine, and, erm
He had a plan, and his plan was to go down to Central America
And spend the summer running guns to Cuba
Er, which he said would be a very lucrative enterprise
And for some reason he wanted me to join him in this
I thought, wow, y′know, it beats playing in these crappy clubs in Chelsea
The crappy jug band that I'm in, and, er, y′know, various other possibilities for the summer
Erm, and er, y'know, I was eighteen years old
And I didn′t have a very well-developed sense of the moral implications of things like that
And, and, er, so I, I gave it some thought
Until I realised that my job would consist of
Getting between this guy and people that were trying to kill him
And I felt under-qualified for that job
And, er, and I - I - I felt further that anybody who felt I was qualified for that job
Was someone I did not want to be near when that stuff started happening
So, so, er, I declined
And here we are
Here we all are
As a result, y'know
Choices, Hmm?
I tell you this story because, er
The, the person in question plays a very tiny part
In the song I′m about to do