Steve Goodman - The Ballad of Penny Evans lyrics
[Steve Goodman - The Ballad of Penny Evans lyrics]
Oh my name is Penny Evans
And my age is twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's
Being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and
I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over
But I think it's just begun
And I remember I was seventeen on
The day I met young Bill
At his father's grand piano
We'd play good old 'Heart and Soul'
And I only knew the left hand part
And he the right so well
And he's the only boy I ever slept
With and the only one I will
It's first we had a baby girl
And we had two good years
And, it was next the 1A notice
Came and we parted without tears
And it was nine months from our last
Good night our second babe appears
And so it's ten months and a
Telegram confirming all our fears
And now every month I get a
Check from an Army bureaucrat
And it's every month I tear it up
And I mail the damn thing back
Do you think that makes it all right
Do you think I'd fall for that?
And you can keep your bloody money
It sure won't bring my Billy back
I never cared for politics
And speeches I don't understand
And likewise never took no charity
From any living man
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone
In that unhappy land
And fifty thousand 'Heart and Soul's' being
Played with just one hand
And my name is Penny Evans
And I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's
Being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I
Thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over
But I think it's just begun
And my age is twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's
Being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and
I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over
But I think it's just begun
And I remember I was seventeen on
The day I met young Bill
At his father's grand piano
We'd play good old 'Heart and Soul'
And I only knew the left hand part
And he the right so well
And he's the only boy I ever slept
With and the only one I will
It's first we had a baby girl
And we had two good years
And, it was next the 1A notice
Came and we parted without tears
And it was nine months from our last
Good night our second babe appears
And so it's ten months and a
Telegram confirming all our fears
And now every month I get a
Check from an Army bureaucrat
And it's every month I tear it up
And I mail the damn thing back
Do you think that makes it all right
Do you think I'd fall for that?
And you can keep your bloody money
It sure won't bring my Billy back
I never cared for politics
And speeches I don't understand
And likewise never took no charity
From any living man
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone
In that unhappy land
And fifty thousand 'Heart and Soul's' being
Played with just one hand
And my name is Penny Evans
And I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's
Being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I
Thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over
But I think it's just begun