John Prine's soldiers

The soldier in John Prine's "Spanish Pipedream" is escaping the draft, and his Sam Stone returns from the war with a morphine addiction that eventually kills him. But those are not the only soldiers on Prine's 1971 debut album. The old man telling his story in "Hello in There" mentions that he and his wife "lost Davy in the Korean war" and adds that they "still don't know what for." And the chorus of "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" memorializes all the soldiers dying in "the conflict overseas" (as it is put in "Sam Stone") when heaven is described as "already overcrowded from your dirty little war." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 13 April)