The song has been speculated to be about a veteran, perhaps of Vietnam, who is drafted and suffers from PTSD; the lyrics are told from the man's point of view as a boy being drafted, how he gets no answers as to why he must join the war [REF].
The signature riff from "To Cut a Long Story Short" is used as a sample looping throughout the Freestylers track "In Love with You" on their album Adventures in Freestyle [REF].