Songfacts®:

• This John Lees composition was written for the band's debut album but did not appear on vinyl for another four years, even though it was earmarked for his 1972 solo project A Major Fancy (which did not in fact see the light of day until 1977).
  Incredibly, the band were not happy with this song, and it went through several recordings and remixes, though it works best as a live number, has been recorded as such, and has long become one of their all time classics. "Child Of The Universe" is similar in content to "For No One", another Lees anti-war song, and is written in the same vein as Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier", focusing here on the child victims of conflict from Vietnam to Northern Ireland in a world where our leaders have given us perpetual war for perpetual peace and where since "the war to end all wars" we have seen literally hundreds of regional conflicts costing tens of millions of innocent lives, a process that shows no sign of abating even in the 21st Century.
  Although an outstanding composition, it is a shade on the long side for a single, but was released on the 1982 FRENCH TOUR '82 12 inch with "Berlin", "Life Is For Living" and "Hymn", all taken from the live Berlin album.
• In the June 1994 issue of the Nova Lepidoptera fanzine, this was voted the band's best song lyrically with 322 votes. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2