John Doe Lyrics - Singles - The Code

There was this wise man I once knew 

Who lived down my street a block or 2 

In a back alley where the autumn leaves blew 

A simple man with a heart so true 

John Doe was a quiet man, who kept to himself and lived off the land 

He panned his living with a rusty tin can 

Been living off the streets since Vietnam 

When Johnny came marching home 

From the Vietnam war he was alone 

Slapped with a label, he hid his face, the nightmare of war 

Was one he couldn erase, when Johnny came marching home 

(he said) I can let go, I can forget 

25 years later, that smell I still remember 

As I watched so many young men lose their lives, on that battlefield 

To Vietnam they sent us barely, old enough they placed us 

On the front lines in a land we had no place'e had no place!!! 

On the day I left that battlefield, I might as well have died 

Because nothing in my life this far, has ever felt quite right 

And each and everyday I try to pick the pieces up 

But the pieces never seem to fit, the pain becomes too much 

It's hard to describe, so hard to relate, it's hard letting go 

When you can't escape 

To think that when we came home our country turned its back 

And labeled us all murderers, spit on us, spit on us and laughed 

He spoke with such convicting words, I felt like I was there 

A simple frail and shattered soul, the soldier never dies he sang 

I thought about how it must feel to watch all your friends die 

So far away so far from home, fighting wars we had no place!