The First and Last Parade
Words Lorcan Otway all rights reserved 2003
Tune Quand j'etais chez mon pere

My first parade when I joined the army
I was as proud as any bantam cock
Marching behind my nation's colors
showing the world we're of gallant stock
Drunk on the rattle of a hundred drums and
the cheers of the crowd for their bravest sons
Bright victory on distant horizons
to be won by the thunder of a thousand guns

We sailed forth from Portsmouth Harbour
what had we to fear upon Britain's seas
Proudly serving in Burgoyne's army
off to defend our colonies
In splendor we landed on Canadian soil
We'll march south to victory
But we found a hard land with harder people
death awaited us behind every tree

Off we marched to the plains of Russia
proudly Napoleon's Eagles fly
The world is bending to France's order
Choose liberty or choose to die
But oh how Russia's winter smites us
And how her warriors bring us woe
Napoleon's fled and now we're abandoned
let to our fate in the Russian snow

Off we fly to the streets of Baghdad
sure of our welcome when we set them free
all the people held down by the tyrant Saddam
long of the gift of liberty
But oh the heat and the bitter hatred
Oh the death that we did sow
Oh the fear of the snipers bullet
and damn all the lies that made us go

Now for me all parades are over
as I lie in the forest in a pool of blood
Now for me all parades are over
frozen stiff in the Russian mud
And oh for me the parade is over
death came in the flash of a land mines blast
We march in ranks but we die alone
We lie 'neath the lies and that our leaders cast.