Lyrics to
Little Boy Soldiers

This version of Little Boy Soldiers was released by The Jam in 1979.

Our The Jam Songs profile has Little Boy Soldiers lyrics from 1979 and most if not all of the lyrics by The Jam that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Jam or about the 1970s in general.

Its funny how you never knew what my name was,
Our only contact was a form for the election.
These days I find that you don’t listen,
These days I find that we’re out of touch,
These days I find that I’m too busy,
So why the attention now you want my assistance –
What have you done for me.

You’ve gone and got yourself in trouble,
No you want me to help you out.

These days I find that I can’t be bothered,
These days I find that its all too much,
To pick up a gun and shoot a stranger,
But I’ve got no choice so here I come – war games.

I’m up on the hills, playing little boy soldiers,
Reconnaissance duty up at 5:30.
Shoot shoot shoot and kill the natives,
You’re one of us and we love you for that.

Think of honour, Queen and country,
You’re a blessed son of the British Empire,
God’s on our side and so is Washington.

Come out on the hills with the little boy soldiers.

Come on outside – I’ll sing you a lullaby,
Or tell a tale of how goodness prevailed.

We ruled the world – we killed and robbed,
The fucking lot – but we don’t feel bad.

It was done beneath the flag of democracy,
You’ll believe and I do – yes I do – yes I do –
yes I do –

These days I find that I can’t be bothered,
To argue withthem well what’s the point,
Better to take your shots and drop down dead,
then they send you home in a pine overcoat

With a letter to your mum

Saying find enclosed one son – one medal and a note –
to say he won.

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The Jam has released many songs over the years besides Little Boy Soldiers. The Jam released songs from 1977 to 1992 spanning across albums like This Is The Modern World, In The City, All Mod Cons, Setting Sons, Sound Affects, Dig The New Breed, The Gift, and Extras. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Jam.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Little Boy Soldiers by The Jam

When you decide to study the lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1979 song by The Jam. Some of the lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Jam and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers" means the words set to the music of Little Boy Soldiers, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Jam. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Little Boy Soldiers and the lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Jam who came here looking just for the lyrics to Little Boy Soldiers, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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