My friends all left home to give the good life a try
They’ve all gone on to bigger and better things
When they called me up before they left to say goodbye
They said Come with us man we’ll live like kings!
I couldn’t tell them that I’d be here
For the next two or three years
And it’s not up to me
I’d have a long time to say
And a heavy amount of dues to pay
Till I’d be free
The boys are leaving town
Racing off to parts unknown
For the first time things are looking down
And I’m left here all alone
Now I’ve known you since the day I was born
And you were very special to me ever since then
The ties that bound us could never be torn
We swore we’d never lose touch, be forever friends
Well girl where you been to?
Don’t you know what I’ve gotten into?
Do you remember who I am?
If you knew I’m always thinking of you
If I said that I still love you
Would you give a damn?
You’re just a distant star
A thousand worlds away from me
I don’t know where you are
But I need you here with me
I’m gonna pound out all those who done me wrong
The way the drums are pounding out in this song
I’m gonna get back at them mark my word
‘Cause don’t you know baby there’s a justice in this world
I know I’ll be out of here someday
On a trip that goes only one way
There’ll be no looking back
And I know I’ll be standing on top
Up where the music won’t stop
Steal away—then attack
It’s gonna happen so fast
They won’t know what went on
But it’s me that’s gonna have the last laugh
And then I’ll be gone
Until then I’ll be here
Trying to survive on my own
Away from those I hold dear
Left here all alone
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
I was not quite 14 when I moved to Israel, and I started my military service there when I was 19. I never stopped being in touch with all my friends back in the USA the entire time I was there. When I was drafted, my American friends had already begun their college stints; a time for flexing their newly adult senses of independence and partying it up while I was, essentially, defending their right to do so, even from another country on the other side of the world. I was acutely feeling the separation and wishing that I could be there with them, while I had the job that was given to me where I was. The cognitive dissonance was jarring and the isolation was painful. I was also angry at the powers-that-were in the army, not only for drafting me, but for placing me in a unit not of my own choosing. These lyrics came to me late one night while on guard duty in the Jordan Valley, some kilometers north of Jericho, as I thought of the people who I was missing. Like many of my songs of the era, I imagined it as being a rock tune, a bit faster than midtempo, in the vein of the songs on Born in the USA. Never recorded or played for the public.
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