I actually think this song is one of the few good Status Quo songs, didn't realise it wasn't actually wrote by them though.
At times you get a feeling that in place it's trying to copy bits of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall with the line
'Sergeant calls: "Stand up and fight"'
being very similar to Pink Floyd's line where the teachers screaming at the kids "Wrong do it again!".
Only thing I don't understand in this song is the lines
"Now you remember what the draft man said, nothing to do all day but stay in bed".
Obviously the soldier they're on about in this song is really gullible as I can believe that these army recruitment guys (the drafts men) do mislead to get recruits, but surely this soldier should have realised that whilst fighting a war he's not going to be spending all day in bed?
As for people discussing which war it's on about - it is about the Vietnam war, the answer is actually in the words - fourth verse - "Smiling faces on the way to 'Nam, but when you get there no one gives a damn". So clearly the soldier was on his way to 'Nam (short for VietNAM).
I think though it may have been released a number of years after 'Nam though because it took a few years for the truth to come out about the Vietnam war, songs like Paul Hardcastle's 19 were also about Vietnam but were released a few years later. This could also be the reason for the line about the drafts man lying to him, as many in 'Nam were very young and gullible, but quite hard to believe that anyone going in the army could be so absolutely gullible that they believe they could stay in bed all day in a war.
I actually think this song is one of the few good Status Quo songs, didn't realise it wasn't actually wrote by them though.
At times you get a feeling that in place it's trying to copy bits of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall with the line
'Sergeant calls: "Stand up and fight"'
being very similar to Pink Floyd's line where the teachers screaming at the kids "Wrong do it again!".
Only thing I don't understand in this song is the lines
"Now you remember what the draft man said, nothing to do all day but stay in bed".
Obviously the soldier they're on about in this song is really gullible as I can believe that these army recruitment guys (the drafts men) do mislead to get recruits, but surely this soldier should have realised that whilst fighting a war he's not going to be spending all day in bed?
As for people discussing which war it's on about - it is about the Vietnam war, the answer is actually in the words - fourth verse - "Smiling faces on the way to 'Nam, but when you get there no one gives a damn". So clearly the soldier was on his way to 'Nam (short for VietNAM).
I think though it may have been released a number of years after 'Nam though because it took a few years for the truth to come out about the Vietnam war, songs like Paul Hardcastle's 19 were also about Vietnam but were released a few years later. This could also be the reason for the line about the drafts man lying to him, as many in 'Nam were very young and gullible, but quite hard to believe that anyone going in the army could be so absolutely gullible that they believe they could stay in bed all day in a war.