The Mercenary Bruce Cockburn

[Intro]
Well, a long time ago, I was a music student
You wouldn't necessarily know that now, but I was, actually
I had serious intentions and
I thought I was gonna be composing for
You know, large jazz ensembles
And I studied that
And I studied it in Boston, um, for a couple years
And you decided to keep it all for yourself
Did you guys hear that?
He said, "And you decided to keep it all for yourself"
Uh, that's the kind of prick I am
Well, thank you!
I may not be able to sing now
Alright
Okay, so he's gonna stop talking now so it's gonna be alright
And it was the mid-sixties and it was the, the Vietnam period (Ow!)
Is that because you were there or you weren't there?
Like, what are we celebrating here?
Ah, well, anyway
I got offered a summer job
I lasted, well, almost two years at, at music school
But, and in between the school seasons there of course was a summer
And, uh, and I got offered a job
Which I came very close to accepting, for a minute
And the job was with a guy who came back from Vietnam
And he was a friend of a dorm-mate of mine, and uh, uh
He had a plan, and his plan was to go down to Central America
And spend the summer running guns to Cuba, uh
Which he said would be a very lucrative enterprise, and
And for some reason he wanted me to join him in this, and
And I thought, "Wow, you know
It beats playing in these crappy clubs in Chelsea
And, you know, the crappy jug band that I'm in"
And, you know, various other, uh, possibilities for the summer
Um, and uh, you know, I was eighteen years old and I didn't have a very
Well-developed sense of the moral implications of things like that
And, and uh, so you know, I gave it some thought, but
Until I realized that my job would consist of
Getting between this guy and people that were trying to kill him
And I felt, uh, under-qualified for that job, and uh, and I
I felt further that anybody who thought that I was qualified for that job was
Someone I would not want to be near when that stuff started happening
So, so I declined, and
Here you are
And here we are, here we all are as a result, you know
Choices, huh?
And uh, so
I tell you this story because, uh
The person in question plays a very tiny part in the song I'm about to do
And this is it