Songfacts®:

• This is the second of three songs the British author Michael Moorcock wrote with Blue Öyster Cult frontman Eric Bloom, falling between "Black Blade" and "The Great Sun Jester." Moorcock also wrote lyrics for Hawkwind, including their 1975 track "Standing at the Edge" from their Warrior on the Edge of Time album, which contains this line:
  
  We are the soldiers at the edge of time
  The veterans of a thousand psychic wars
  
  Along with three other songs from Warrior on the Edge of Time, that song is based on Moorcock's concept of the Eternal Champion, which encompasses different warriors, including the albino marauder Elric of Melnibone.
  
  Moorcock extended the story for "Veteran of the Psychic Wars," which finds the warrior struggling with physical and emotional wounds.
• This song appears in the 1981 animated, R-rated film Heavy Metal, which carries themes similar to what's described in the lyric.
• Eric Bloom wrote the music for this track on a keyboard. Michael Moorcock sent him the lyrics, which he married to his track to create the song.