The Old Man's Song chords by Christy Moore

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