He was born on a summer day, 1951
 
 And with a slap of a hand, he had landed as an only son
 
 His mother and father said: What a lovely boy
 
 We'll teach him what we learned, oh, yes, just what we learned
 
 We'll dress him up warmly, and we'll send him to school
 
 It'll teach him how to fight, to be nobody's fool
 
  
  Oh, oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
  
 
 In the summer of '53, his mother brought him a sister
 
 And she told him: We must attend to her needs
 
 She's so much younger than you
 
 Well, he ran down the hall and he cried
  
 
 Oh, how could his parents have lied?
 
 When they said he was their only son
 
 He thought he was their only one
  
 
 Oh, oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
  
 
 Goodbye Mama
 
 Goodbye you
 
 Goodbye Papa
 
 I'm pushing on through
  
 
 He left home on a winter day, 1969
 
 And he hoped to find all the love he had lost in that earlier time
 
 Well, his sister grew up, and she married a man
 
 He gave her a son, oh, yes, a lovely son
 
 They dressed him up warmly, they sent him to school
 
 It taught him how to fight, to be nobody's fool
  
 
 Oh, oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
  
 
 Whoa-whoa-whoa, oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy
 
 Oh, what a lonely boy