Our boys are standing tall out there, Full of guts and pride— Except the ones who can't stand up, The ones who went and died.
Knew a guy was crazy keen To have a piece of land— Now he's got six feet of earth In far-off Vietnam.
Poor wayfarin' stranger, Rambling through the town Draft board sent him overseas And laid that poor boy down.
Our boys are standing tall and proud And some are lying flat, The honoured guests at barbecues Where only worms get fat.
Joe Baker talked of raising wheat Under Kansas skies-- Now shoots of rice are growing From the sockets of his eyes.
Knew a guy from Fresno A Chicano poor as dirt— Now he's lying in a ditch With a medal on his shirt.
Our boys are standing tall and proud Sons of Uncle Sam - Bringing the 'merican way of life To backward Vietnam.
Big Bill, a black from Harlem, Demanded equal rights— He got 'em when they buried him With half a dozen whites.
Knew a certain traveller, Came from Arkansas—- Travelled straight into his grave In Nixon's dirty war.
Our boys are standing tall and proud Rifles in their hands— Wondering why the hell they're fighting In this foreign land.
To help United Steel survive. Kovalski fought and bled—-- The shareholders are doing fine But Joe Kovalski's dead.
Black kid from Atlanta, Serving Uncle Sam— Died for General Motors In the fields of Vietnam.
Knew a guy from Texas Name of Billy Doyle-- - Died in the Mekong Delta Defending Standard Oil.
The white man drafts the black man To fight the yellow guy, To defend the red man's land he stole Way back in the by and by.
Our boys are standing tall and proud, Piling up the dead— And with every peasant hut they burn The east glows deeper red.
from the Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook
The song is on a 1973 Rounder cassette called At the Present Moment, by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. I gather there is no recording of the song available on CD. Click to play