"Soldier" is a song by Neil Young from the 1972 soundtrack album, Journey Through the Past. It was the only new track included on the album, and was later released on the 1977 compilation Decade, although it was slightly edited.
The song observes how a soldier's eyes "shine like the sun." This is most likely referencing young men returning from war traumatized by the things they have seen in battle. In the second verse, Young sings he does not believe Jesus because he "can't deliver right away". This could be seen as an atheist comment referencing the soldier's feelings that Jesus cannot deliver right away to prayers or wishes, therefore he does not exist.
Famous quotes containing the words soldier and/or young:
“A nation fights well in proportion to the amount of men and materials it has. And the other equation is that the individual soldier in that army is a more effective soldier the poorer his standard of living has been in the past.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“But O, young beauty of the woods,
Whom Nature courts with fruits and flowers,
Gather the flowers, but spare the buds;
Lest Flora, angry at thy crime
To kill her infants in their prime,
Do quickly make the example yours;
And ere we see,
Nip in the blossom all our hopes and thee.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)