1916

 

 intro:   A, A, A, A.

Verse:

A                   E
16 years old when I went the war,
   D                        A
To fight for a land fit for heroes,
A                    E
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
D                       A
Chasing my days down to zero,
A                               E                    
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
      D                 A
And I never did get any older,
A                             E
But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
     D                       A           A,  A,  A, 
Is a long enough life for a soldier,
   A                         E
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
        D                     A
And we added two years to our ages,
A                   E
Eager for life and ahead of the game,
D                   A
Ready for history's pages,
A                                   E
And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood,
D                           A
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
A                               E
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
D                                     A       A,
And that's what you are when you're soldiers,

A,E,D,A,  A,E,D,A  A,A,A.

A                             E                 
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
         D                           A     
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
    A                        E                  
And I fell by his side, and that's how we died,
D                           A
Clinging like kids to each other,
      A                      E                 
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
      D                      A
And I wept as his body grew colder,
      A                        E              
And I called for my mother and she never came,
          G                     D
Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame,
     A                    E
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
     G                    D                 
And now there's nobody remembers our names,
D                           A
And that's how it is for a soldier.