Having just been reading Stephen Sondheim on how every word of a lyric is vitally important, here's the definitive original lyric;
1. Well, the sun was hot and the air was heavy
As the marching men came by,
And you ran to the door to watch them pass
And you asked the soldiers, "Why?"
But the sound of the steel and the black boot's heel
Was pounding in your head,
And your freedom's passed they have come at last
With the blessings of the dead.
CHORUS: Hey, Sandy, hey, Sandy, why were you the one?
All the years of growing up are wasted now and gone.
Did you see them turn? Did you feel the burn of the bullets as they flew?
Hey, Sandy, hey, Sandy, just what did you do?
Hey, Sandy, hey, Sandy, just what did you do?
2. In the college square they were standing there
With the flag and with the drum,
And the whispered word as the young ones stirred
Was, "Now at last they've come"
And the air was still with the lonely thrill
Of now the hour is near
And the smell of sweat was better yet
Than the awful stench of fear. CHORUS
3. Through the air the shout as you all ran out
Was "Why are these things done?"
And you stood and you stared but no one cared
For another campus bum
And your songs were dead, and the hymns instead
Were to the burning pyre
And the words of youth, like Love and Truth,
Just ashes in the fire. CHORUS
4. Did you throw the stone at the men alone,
With their bayonets fixed for hire?
Did you doubt that they would, say no one could?
Did you scream when they opened fire?
As the square ran red and your blood stain spread,
And the darkness round you grew,
Through the fear and the pain did you call the name
Of the man you never knew? CHORUS