Bummer lyrics

Artist  : Harry Chapin 
Song : Bummer



 Send "Bummer" Ringtone to your Cell 

 His mama was a midnight woman

His daddy was a drifter drummer

One night they put it together

Nine months later came the little black
bummer





He was a laid back lump in the cradle

Chewing the paint chips that fell from the
ceiling

Whenever he cried he got a fist in his face

So he learned not to show his feelings





He was a pig-tail puller in grammer school

Left back twice by the seventh grade

Sniffing glue in Junior High

And the first one in school to get laid





He was a weed-speed pusher at fifteen

He was mainlining skag a year later

He'd started pimping when they put him away

In jail he changed from a junkie to a hater





And just like the man from the precinct said:

"Put him away, you better kill him
instead.

A bummer like that is better of dead

Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his
head."





They threw him back on the street, he robbed an A
& P

He didn't blink at the buddy that he shafted

And just about the time they would have caught
him too

He had the damn good fortune to get drafted





He was A-One bait for Vietnam, you see they
needed more bodies in a hurry

He was a cinch to train cause all they had to
do

Was to figure how to funnel his fury





They put him in a tank near the D M Z

To catch the gooks slipping over the border

They said his mission was to Search and
Destroy

And for once he followed and order





One sweat-soaked day in the Yung-Po Valley

With the ground still steaming from the rain

There was a bloody little battle that didn't mean
nothing

Except to the few that remained





You see a couple hundred slants had trapped the
other five tanks

And had started to pick off the crews

When he came on the scene and it really did
seem

This is why he'd paid those dues





It was something like a butcher going berserk

Or a sane man acting like a fool

Or the bravest thing that a man had ever done

Or a madman blowing his cool





Well he came on through like a knife through
butter

Or a scythe sweeping through the grass

Or to say it like the man would have said it
himself:

"Just a big black bastard kicking
ass!"





And just like the man from the precinct said:

"Put him away, you better kill him
instead.

A bummer like that is better of dead

Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his
head."





When it was over and the smoke had cleared

There were a lot of V C bodies in the mud

And when the rescued men came over for the very
first time

They found him smiling as he lay in his blood





They picked up the pieces and they stitched him
back together

He pulled through though they thought he was a
goner

And it force them to give him what they said they
would

Six purple hearts and the Medal of Honor





Of course he slouched as the chief white honkey
said:

"Service beyond the call of duty"

But the first soft thought was passing through
his mind

"My medal is a Mother of a beauty!"





He got a couple of jobs with the ribbon on his
chest

And though he tried he really couldn't do 'em

There was only a couple of things that he was
really trained for

And he found himself drifting back to 'em

Just about the time he was ready to break

The V A stopped sending him his checks

Just a matter of time 'cause there was no
doubt

About what he was going to do next





It ended up one night in a grocery store

Gun in hand and nine cops at the door

And when his last battle was over

He lay crumpled and broken on the floor





And just like the man from the precinct said:

"Put him away, you better kill him
instead.

A bummer like that is better of dead

Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his
head."





Well he'd breathed his last, but ten minutes
past

Before they dared to enter the place

And when they flipped his riddled body over they
found

His second smile frozen on his face





They found his gun where he'd thrown it

There was something else clenched in his fist

And when they pried his fingers open they found
the Medal of Honor

And the Sergeant said: "Where in the hell he
get this?"





There was a stew about burying him in
Arlington

So they shipped him in box to Fayette

And they kind of stashed him in a grave in the
county plot

The kind we remember to forget





And just like the man from the precinct said:

"Put him away, you better kill him
instead.

A bummer like that is better of dead

Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his
head."