One Tin Soldier - Original Caste, The (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

One Tin Soldier (Original Caste, The, 1970; Coven, 1971). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2025-06-12. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"One Tin Soldier," written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, was the Original Caste's only entry onto the Billboard Hot 100 landing at the no. 34 position in 1970. A year later, the group Coven scored a minor hit with the song as well, and renamed the song "One Tin Soldier, The Legend of Billy Jack;" their version rose to the no. 26 on the Billboard chart in 1971 and reentered the chart in 1973 stalling at no. 73 (Whitburn, 2013). “'One Tin Soldier' became a popular song during the Vietnam War and was often heard as an anti-war anthem (A. Lambert, countrythangdaily, Aug. 26, 2020). Jinx Dawson the lead singer of Coven, was employed to provide the vocal of the song for the film "Billy Jack," though the recording was released as a Coven recording (songfacts, 2025).

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Lyrics:

Listen children to a story
That was written long ago
About a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley folk below

On the mountian was a treasure
Burried deep beneath a stone
And the valley people swore
They'd have it for their very own

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the burried treasure
Tons of gold for which they'd kill

Came an answer from the kingdom
With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches burried there

Now the valley cried with anger
Mount your horses, draw your sword
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward

Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain dark and red
Turn the stone and which beneath it
Peace on earth was all it said

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There wont be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There wont be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away