I Can't Write Left Handed

Yeah, yeah, yeah, oooh, oooh, yeah
Bill Withers recorded this song
At the end of the Vietnam war
As I record this now, America
The land of peace and prosperity
Is in the middle of two wars
No matter what the politicians in Washington
Say we're fighting for
They make the decisions
And our young men and women
They go and fight
And some, paid the ultimate sacrifice
War is hell
It always has been and always will be
When Bill Withers performed this song
At Carnegie Hall back in 1973
He told the story of a young man
Bill asked the young man how he was doing
The young man said he was doing alright, now
But he had thought he was gonna die
He said getting shot at didn't bother him
It was getting shot that shook him up
So Bill wrote a song about it
Tried to put himself in the young man's place
He said, yeah

I can't write left-handed
Would you please write a letter, write a letter to my mother?
Instrumental
Tell her to tell, tell her to tell, tell her to tell the family lawyer
Trying to get, trying to get a deferment for my younger brother
Instrumental

Tell the Reverend Harris to pray for me, Lord, Lord, Lord
I ain't gonna live, I don't believe I'm going to live to get much older
Strange little man over here in Vietnam I ain't, I ain't never seen
Bless his heart ain't never done nothing to
He done shot me in my shoulder (in my shoulder)
Instrumental

Boot camp we had classes
You know we talked about fighting, fighting everyday
Instrumental
And looking through rosy, rosy colored glasses
I must admit it seemed exciting anyway
Instrumental

Oh, but something that day overlooked to tell me
The bullets look better, I must say
Brother, brother when they ain't coming at you
But going out the other way

So please call up the Reverend, call up, call up the Reverend Harris
Tell him to ask the Lord to do some good things for me
Tell him I ain't gonna live, I ain't gonna live, I ain't gonna live
To get much older, oh Lord
Strange little man over here in Vietnam, I ain't never seen
Bless his heart ain't never done nothing to,
He done shot me in my shoulder (shot me in my shoulder)
Instrumental
Lord, I can't write left handed, Lord
Instrumental