The Old Man's Song Chords

Lyrics & chords

[Verse 1]
At [D]the turning of the [C]century
I [A]was a lad of five
[D]Me father went to fight the
Boers and [C]never came back alive
[A]Me [D]mother had to bring us up
and no [C]charity she did [G]seek
So she [D]rubbed and scrubbed and [C]scraped
along on [A]seven and six a [D]week
At the age of twelve I [C]left me school
and [A]went to get [D]a job
With grown up kids me ma could
do with the [C]extra couple of [A]bob
I [D]knew that longer schooling would
[C]have stood me better stead
[G]But you [D]can't afford refine[C]ment when
you're strug[A]gling for [D]your bread
When the
Great
War [C]started, oh, I [A]didn't hesitate
[D]I took the
Royal
Schilling and I [C]went to do me [A]bits
We [D]fought in
Blood and
Sweat and
Mud, three [C]years or there[G]abouts
Till I [D]copped some gas in
[C]Flanders and was [A]invalided [D]out
When the war was [C]over,
and we'd [A]settled with the
[D]Hun
We went back to our cities,
for we [C]taught the fightin' [A]dun
But [D]we went when the dead,
and we [C]soon were out of work
[G]For soo[D]n we had to fight,[C]
for the [A]right to go [D]to work
In twenty -six, the [C]general strike,
it [A]found me on the street[D]s
Be then I had a wife and kids,
their [C]needs I had to meet
[A]But the [D]brave new world was coming,
and the [C]brotherhood of [G]man.
But [D]when the strike was [C]over,
we were [A]back where we [D]began.
I struggled through the [C]thirties,
out of [A]work now and [D]again.
I saw the black shirts marching,
and the [C]things they did in
[A]Spain.
But they [D]brought me kids of decent,
and [C]showed them wrong from right.
[G]But
[D]Hitler was the [C]lad who came,
and [A]showed them how to fight[D].
My daughter was a land [C]girl,
she got [A]married to a yank
[D]My son,
he got a gun for stoppin' [C]run of
Rommel's tank[A]s
He was [D]wounded near the end
of the war and [C]convalesced in
Rome
[G]He mar[D]ried a nighttime nur[C]se
and never [A]bothered to [D]come home
My daughter writes me [C]every week,
a [A]cheerful little note
[D]About the colour telly and the
[C]other things [A]she's got
She's [D]got a son, a likely lad,
he's [C]just turned twenty [G]-one
But [D]now I hear he's [C]been
called up to [A]fight in
[D]Vietnam
Now we're on the [C]pension,
and it [A]doesn't go too far
[D]That much to show for a life that's
been like [C]one long bloody [A]war
When I [D]think of all the wasted lives,
it [C]makes me want to cry
[G]I d[D]on't know how we'll change thin[C]gs,
but by
[A]Christ we'll have to try