The Trooper

20th June 1983

Album

You'll take my life but I'll take yours too
You'll fire your musket but I'll run you through
So when you're waiting for the next attack
You'd better stand there's no turning back

The bugle sounds and the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath
As I plunge on into certain death

Ooooooooh! Ooooooooh!

The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the Russian guns
And as we race toward the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the Russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won't live to fight another day

Ooooooooh! Ooooooooh!

(2:11 – Solo: Adrian Smith)
(2:35 – Solo: Dave Murray)

We get so close near enough to fight
When a Russian gets me in his sights
He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow
A burst of rounds take my horse below

And as I lay there gazing at the sky
My body's numb and my throat is dry
And as I lay forgotten and alone
Without a tear I draw my parting groan

Ooooooooh! Ooooooooh!

Who would be a poor man, a beggarman, a thief
If he had a rich man in his hand
And who would steal the candy from a laughing baby's mouth
If he could take it from the money man

Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again
She signs no contract but she always plays it clean
She dines in Hampstead village on expense-accounted gruel
And the jack-knife barber drops her off at school

Laughing in the playground gets no kicks from little boys
Would rather make it with a letching gray
Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
Who watches through the railings as they play

Cross-eyed Mary finds it hard to get along
A poor man's rich girl and she'll do it for a song
A rich man's stealer but her favour's good and strong
She's the Robin Hood of Highgate helps the poor man get along

(2:13 – Solo: Adrian Smith)
(2:23 – Solo: Dave Murray)

Laughing in the playground gets no kicks from little boys
Would rather make it with a letching gray
Or maybe her attention is drawn by Aqualung
Who watches through the railings as they play

Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again
She signs no contract but she always plays it clean
She dines in Hampstead village on expense-accounted gruel
And the jack-knife barber drops her off at school

Cross-eyed Mary, Oh Mary... Oh Cross-eyed Mary