Handsome Johnny Songtext
von Gil Scott‐Heron

Military

Hey, look yonder, tell me what′s that you see
Marching to the fields of Concord?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a musket in his hand
Marching to the Concord war
Hey, marching to the Concord war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the fields of Gettysburg?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a flintlock in his hand here
Marching to the Gettysburg war
Hey, marching to the Gettysburg war

And it′s a long hard road
It's a long hard road
It's a long hard road
Here before we′ll be free


Hey, look yonder, tell me what′s that you see
Marching to the fields of Dunkirk?
It looks like Handsome Johnny with a carbine in his hand here
Marching to the Dunkirk war
Hey, marching to the Dunkirk war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the fields of Korea?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with an M-1 in his hand here
Marching to the Korean war
Hey, marching to the Korean war

And it′s a long hard road
It's a long hard road
It′s a long hard road
Here before we'll be free
Here before we′ll be free

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Vietnam?
Looks like Handsome Johnny got an M-16
And marching to the Vietnam war
Yeah, marching to the Vietnam war


Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the fields of Birmingham?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with his hand rolled up in a fist here
Marching to the Birmingham war
Hey, marching to the Birmingham war

And it's a long hard road
It′s a long hard road
It′s a long hard road
Here before we'll be free
Here before we′ll be free

Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the streets of Bagdad?
Looks like Handsome Johnny ain′t got an ideal
And he's marching to the Bagdad war
Yes, he′s marching to the Bagdad war

Hey, what's the use of my singing this song
'Cause some of you are not even listening
Tell me what it is that we′ve got to do here
Wait for our fields to start glistening
Yeah, wait for the bullets to start whistling

Hey, here comes a hydrogen bomb, yeah
And here comes a guided missile
Here comes a hydrogen bomb
And I can almost hear it whistle
Almost hear it whistle

Hey-hey, look yonder, tell me what′s that you see
New boss and new fellow employes?
Looks like Handsome Johnny got a laptop in his hand, yeah
Heading for the Wall Street wars
Heading for the Wall Street wars, ha-ha-ha-ha