Zager and Evans — Fred

On a white enamled road They pulled him from his mother's womb Hanging from his heels he cried And everyone put on their smiles Ugly red, and dripping wet They put him in a bassinet Tiny toes and fingernails His daddy said "He'll go to Yale," Such was the first day for Fred When he reached the age of nine He killed a frog with a kitchen knife He broke the wing of a noble bird He took a jagged rock, his sling-shot hurled When he reached ten He stole the neighbor's guinea hen Wrapped its beak in masking tape It starved to death in thirteen days Such was the tenth year of Fred When Fred was sweet sixteen He robbed the neighborhood Dairy Queen He drove away in his daddy's car — He didn't get far The local buzz hauled him away He went to trial the very next day Found guilty, the sixteenth year for Fred And his daddy cried "Oh Fred, Fred, where'd we go wrong?" "We used to buy you things, I though we got along," "Though, Fred, Fred, you been livin' a life of sin," "Tell me Fred, what are we gonna tell our friends?" When Fred was twenty one He was well prepared for things to come He' learned to kill, hate and steal Now uncle Sam offers better deals When [?] good men like you, my boy [?] It takes aggression and the will of steal And mainly we got a bullet to