Three years of wearing green
Of toeing the line and discipline
So completely not my scene
What an experience
Hair clipped short and polished boots
Good old-fashioned target shoots
Standing at attention and throwing salutes
What an experience
Red alerts in the midnight hours
Sentry duty in tin-can towers
Squat outhouses and ice-cold showers
What an experience
Forced marches and two-mile runs
Morning inspections and cleaning guns
How much longer till this is done
What an experience
Howitzers and APCs
Charges, shells, and cannons, oh please
Enough is enough, no more of these
What an experience
Those hellholes that I got into
Like Noam where the hot wind blew
Or Bajuria and Shivta too
What an experience
Sergeants that would shice my head
Bouncing coins off my bed
Well, now let them all drop dead
What an experience
Commanders showing off their ranks
With egos the size of a squad of tanks
Sign another hitch? Hey NO THANKS!
What an experience
Where have I gone to, where have I been
How the hell did I get in
Three years wasted, it’s practically a sin
What an experience
Oh, I know how it’s so vital
We’re talking about our survival
Brothers in arms by the soldiers’ bible
What an experience
So let me get up now and shout it
I could’ve lived my life without it
Trying not to think about it
What an experience
It’s gone to my head now, so don’t mind me
The free world is where you’ll find me
As the gates of the Bakum recede behind me
What an experience
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
I was discharged from my service in the Israel Defense Forces on May 3, 1988, some three years less four days after I started. Once a soldier passes the midpoint of his service, he "flips the record over," to use an archaic term, and starts counting down to the discharge date (known affectionately as the manayak in IDF slang), which cannot come fast enough. It was during this "Side B" period that I wrote the song, envisioning that day when time and power of decision would ostensibly be my own. Whatever decisions I'd make after that, and their consequences, would become the subjects of many songs that came later; I wanted to capture the moment when the whole world lay spread out before me for the taking.
Musically, I thought of Lou Reed's song "The Blue Mask" (the title song of the album by that name) when envisioning the music for these lyrics. However, this song was never recorded or performed to date.