He was a ragged boy when at his father's knee;
Became an orphan like a fledgling from a tree
And at the barrack fence he found his only thrill;
The sights and sounds of the parade ground
And the soldiers and their drill.
And the band played on and the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana Song
Nobody was there to share, to turn to and to say:
"I'm gonna be a soldier too one day..."
He was a ragged youth, he worked the fields of grain:
A simple man of peace in sun and wind and rain
And they came in the dead of night as only jackals can
And they killed his woman and child
And the white haired old man.
And life goes on and the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana song.
Nobody was there to hear his oath of sweet revenge
And the deaths he swore one day he would avenge.
Far from the ragged boy the soldier that he made;
No one to see him at the passing- out- parade
One day, an ambush and a bullet tears his chest
And dying as he fires four jackals meet their death
And the war raged on and the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana song.
Nobody was there, to care, to be there by his side,
Nobody was there when the ragged soldier died.
Nobody was there, nobody was there
Nobody was there, nobody was there...