Breakinglass139 is right re: the pressgang, i would only add that if later you tried to run away from the Navy, well then you would get hanged for desertion.
This song has special meaning for me... I had a friend (Sgt Scott Kirkpatrick, KIA, also 1999 Slam Poetry National Champion) who joined the army in '04 because he wanted to go fight in Afganistan. He was tired of "Dreaming his life away" and wanted to "Make it on his own" This was his favorite devils song. He was taken in by all the pomp and hype in the media and in the ad campaigns on TV and everywhere else for the Army. After his 1st tour in Iraq, (where he never wanted to go and didnt know why he was there) he expressed to me some of his reservations about the Army, their mission and the things he was being asked to do. 2 months later he shipped out for his second tour in Iraq, where he was killed by a suicide bombers' booby trap. Such a fucking waste... "He was a good man, he was a young man. He was like you, he was like me."
Breakinglass139 is right re: the pressgang, i would only add that if later you tried to run away from the Navy, well then you would get hanged for desertion.
This song has special meaning for me... I had a friend (Sgt Scott Kirkpatrick, KIA, also 1999 Slam Poetry National Champion) who joined the army in '04 because he wanted to go fight in Afganistan. He was tired of "Dreaming his life away" and wanted to "Make it on his own" This was his favorite devils song. He was taken in by all the pomp and hype in the media and in the ad campaigns on TV and everywhere else for the Army. After his 1st tour in Iraq, (where he never wanted to go and didnt know why he was there) he expressed to me some of his reservations about the Army, their mission and the things he was being asked to do. 2 months later he shipped out for his second tour in Iraq, where he was killed by a suicide bombers' booby trap. Such a fucking waste... "He was a good man, he was a young man. He was like you, he was like me."