Rodney DeCroo When I Was a Boy lyrics

When I was a boy, I called every mister sir,
and I called all them ladies maam.
And my daddy loved to drink, curse and fight,
and my momma stayed home with us every night.

We lived in Beaufort, South Carolina,
my daddy he was a Marine. And they sent him off to Vietnam,
to go and fight the Viet Cong and my momma cried,
and my daddy said honey be strong.

General Custer was a great hero, at least you know, that was what I was told.
Until I read a book called Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,
oh man, what a bill of goods I'd been sold.

When my daddy came back from overseas,
he was as different as different could be.
He hardly spoke a word, and man, his eyes did burn,
just like that napalm dropped to set those people free.


Now General Custer, he rides again, down the streets
of poor old Baghdad.
And how many people are going to die,
while the president preaches freedom up on high?
Freedom is the freedom to do what's right,
and anything else they sell you, well they're wrong.
And you might say I ain't got the right,
well Mr. Bush I got the right to write this goddamn song.

'Cause when I was a boy I called every mister sir,
and I called all them ladies maam.
And my daddy loved to drink, curse and fight,
and my momma stayed home with us every night.