IntroVerse 1At The Turning Of The Century I Was A Boy Of FiveMe Father Went To Fight The Boers And He Never Came Back AliveOh Me Mother Was Left To Bring Us Up, And No Charity She'd SeekSo She Washed And Scrubbed And Scraped Along On Seven And Six A WeekVerse 2When I Was Twelve I Left The School And I Went To Find A JobAnd With Growing Kids My Ma Was Glad Of The Extra Couple Of BobI'm Sure That Longer Schooling Would Have Stood Me In Good SteadBut You Can't Afford Refinements When You're Struggling For Your BreadVerse 3And When The Great War Came Along I Didn't HesitateI Took The Royal Shilling And Went Off To Do My BitWe Fought In Mud And Tears And Blood Three Years Or ThereaboutsTill I Copped Some Gas In Flanders And Was Invalided OutVerse 4And When The War Was Over And We'd Finished With The GunsWe Got Back Into Civvies And We Thought The Fighting DoneWe'd Won The Right To Live In Peace But We Didn't Have Such LuckFor Soon We Found We Had To Fight For The Right To Go To WorkInterludeVerse 5In '26 The General Strike Saw Me Out On The StreetsAnd I'd A Wife And Kids By Then And Their Needs I Had To MeetFor A Brave New World Was Coming And A Brotherhood Of MenAnd When The Strike Was Over We Were Back Where We BeganVerse 6Oh I Struggled Through The Thirties Out Of Work Now And AgainI Saw The Black Shirts Marching And The Things They Did In SpainI Brought Me Kids Up Decent And I Taught Them Wrong From RightOh And Hitler Was The Boy That Came And He Taught Them How To FightVerse 7My Daughter Was A Landgirl, She Got Married To A YankAnd They Gave Me Son A Medal For Stopping One Of Rommel's TanksHe Was Wounded Just Before The End And He Convalesced In RomeHe Married An Italian Nurse And Never Bothered To Come HomeVerse 8My Daughter Writes Me Once A Month, A Cheerful Little NoteAbout Their Colour Tellys And The Other Things They've GotThey've Got A Son, A Likely Lad; He's Nearly Twenty-OneAnd They Tell Me Now He's Been Called Up To Fight In VietnamVerse 9We're Living On The Pension Now, It Doesn't Go Too FarNot Much To Show For A Life That Seems Like One Long Bloody WarAnd When You Think Of All The Wasted Lives It Makes You Want To CryI'm Not Sure How To Change Things, But By Christ We'll Have To Try
