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"The Story of a Soldier" ("La Storia Di un Soldato" in Italian) is a song from Sergio Leone's 1966 Western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Like the rest of the film's score, it was composed by Ennio Morricone, and it is the only song in the score accompanied by lyrics. The lyrics were written by Tommy Connor.<ref>http://www.sartana.homestead.com/story.html</ref>

The song and lyrics both carry a depressing tone. The instrumentals haunt the aftermaths of the Civil War battle scenes in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and the lyrics suggest war as a hopeless affair with no glory earned for those who march off and die in battle.

It is possible, though speculative, that the lyrics were written in response to escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

[edit] Differing versions

An abridged cut of the song, lasting approximately three and a half minutes, is included in all U.S. domestic releases of the film's score. An extended cut of the song, lasting 5:33, is included in the score's latest Italian release.

[edit] Lyrics

From U.S. domestic release:

Bugles are calling

From prairie to shore,

Sign up and fall in

And march off to war.

Drums beating loudly,

Hearts beating proudly

Match Blue and Grey

And smile as you say, "Goodbye."

Smoke hides the valleys

And fire paints the plains.

Loud roar the cannons

'Til ruin remains.

Blue grass and cotton

Burnt and forgotten

All hope seems gone

So soldier march on to die.

There in the distance

A flag I can see,

Scorched and in ribbons

But whose can it be?

How ends the story?

Whose is the glory?

Ask if we dare

Our comrades out there who sleep.