Intro
Verse 1
At The Turning Of The Century I Was A Boy Of Five
Me Father Went To Fight The Boers And He Never Came Back Alive
Oh Me Mother Was Left To Bring Us Up, And No Charity She'd Seek
So She Washed And Scrubbed And Scraped Along On Seven And Six A Week
Verse 2
When I Was Twelve I Left The School And I Went To Find A Job
And With Growing Kids My Ma Was Glad Of The Extra Couple Of Bob
I'm Sure That Longer Schooling Would Have Stood Me In Good Stead
But You Can't Afford Refinements When You're Struggling For Your Bread
Verse 3
And When The Great War Came Along I Didn't Hesitate
I Took The Royal Shilling And Went Off To Do My Bit
We Fought In Mud And Tears And Blood Three Years Or Thereabouts
Till I Copped Some Gas In Flanders And Was Invalided Out
Verse 4
And When The War Was Over And We'd Finished With The Guns
We Got Back Into Civvies And We Thought The Fighting Done
We'd Won The Right To Live In Peace But We Didn't Have Such Luck
For Soon We Found We Had To Fight For The Right To Go To Work
Interlude
Verse 5
In '26 The General Strike Saw Me Out On The Streets
And I'd A Wife And Kids By Then And Their Needs I Had To Meet
For A Brave New World Was Coming And A Brotherhood Of Men
And When The Strike Was Over We Were Back Where We Began
Verse 6
Oh I Struggled Through The Thirties Out Of Work Now And Again
I Saw The Black Shirts Marching And The Things They Did In Spain
I Brought Me Kids Up Decent And I Taught Them Wrong From Right
Oh And Hitler Was The Boy That Came And He Taught Them How To Fight
Verse 7
My Daughter Was A Landgirl, She Got Married To A Yank
And They Gave Me Son A Medal For Stopping One Of Rommel's Tanks
He Was Wounded Just Before The End And He Convalesced In Rome
He Married An Italian Nurse And Never Bothered To Come Home
Verse 8
My Daughter Writes Me Once A Month, A Cheerful Little Note
About Their Colour Tellys And The Other Things They've Got
They've Got A Son, A Likely Lad; He's Nearly Twenty-One
And They Tell Me Now He's Been Called Up To Fight In Vietnam
Verse 9
We're Living On The Pension Now, It Doesn't Go Too Far
Not Much To Show For A Life That Seems Like One Long Bloody War
And When You Think Of All The Wasted Lives It Makes You Want To Cry
I'm Not Sure How To Change Things, But By Christ We'll Have To Try
