salute to a switchblade

me and yates an army buddy o'mine were doin' three years in germany at the time

we came upon these frauleins in the bar

yates said darf isch zee be-gleit-en they said ya

oh we must have drunk ten quarts of german beer

my conscience and my sinuses were clear

i asked that fraulein if she was a spy she said nein but do bis ain bissel high

well later on i went to be excused when i returned i was a bit confused

yates and his fraulein had hit the air another guy was sittin' in my chair

i said excuse me mister that's my seat i'd like to have it back sir if you please

that girl's a nurse and i've been awful sick the man looked up at me and said mox-nix

next thing i knew he had a switchblade knife

lord i didn't know that fraulein was his wife

i took off through that gasthaus like a fool behind me i heard the crashing stools

well the waitress yelled there's mps on the way

that's one more reason i didn't want to stay

as i went out the window somethin' went switch

and i giggled all the way home knowin' he missed

but next morning my coat was lyin' there on the bunk

and when i saw that coat it made me jump

that man had cut my coat right down the back

a little bit more and they'd been playin' me taps

well later on i heard that guy got stabbed

they sent him home and didn't that make me glad

on love and marriage i want to say one thing oh lady if you're married wear that ring

(and the army has a new policy if you can't move it paint it

if it has a switchblade knife salute it

not necessarily an incident one would want to write mother about

germany being full of good soldiers good people)