He was a ragged boy when at his father's knee
Became an orphan like a fledgling from a tree
And at the barrack fence he found his only thrill
The sights and sounds of the parade ground and the soldiers at their drill

And the band played on
And the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana song

Nobody was there
To share
To turn to and to say
I'm gonna be a soldier too one day

He was a ragged youth, he worked the fields of grain
A simple man of peace in sun and wind and rain
And they came in the dead of night as only jackals can
And they killed his woman and child
And the white-haired old man

And life goes on
And the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana song

Nobody was there
To hear
His oath of sweet revenge
And the deaths he swore one day he would avenge

Far from the ragged boy the soldier that he made
No one to see him at the passing-out parade
One day an ambush and a bullet tears his chest
And dying as he fires
Four jackals meet their death

And the war raged on
And the soldiers marched along
And they sang the Sweet Banana song

Nobody was there
To care
To be there by his side, nobody was there when the ragged soldier died

Nobody was there
Nobody was there
Nobody was there
Nobody was there