words from memory so I can't say if all the words are as "first written" I'll check for further background and post it to this thread. - Pete



THE OLD MAN'S SONG
(Ian Campbell)

At the turning of the century I was a lad of five,
Me father went to fight the Boers and never came back alive
Me ma was left to bring us up, no Charity she'd seek
She washed and scrubbed and scraped along on seven & six a week.

When I was twelve I left the school and went to find a job,
With growing kids me Ma was glad of the extra couple of bob,
I'm sure that better schooling would have stood me in good stead,
But you can't afford refinements when you're struggling for your bread.

And when the Great War came along I didn't hesitate,
I took the Royal shilling and went off to do me bit,
I fought in mud and tears and blood Three years or there' about
'til I copped some gas in Flanders and was invalided out.

And when the war was over and we'd settled with the Hun,
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 pretty soon we had to fight for the right to go to work.

In Twenty six the General Strike found me on the streets
Though I'd a wife and kids by then and their needs I had to meet
But a Brave New world was coming and the Brotherhood of man,
But when the strike was over we were back where we began.

I struggled through the Thirties, out of work now and again,
I saw the Black shirts marching and the things they did in Spain
But I brought me kids up decent and I taught them wrong from right,
Then Hitler was the lad that came and taught them how to fight.

Me daughter she's a Land girl she got married to a Yank
They gave me son a gong for stopping one of Rommel's tanks,
He was wounded just before the end and convalesced in Rome
Where he married an Eyetie girl and never bothered to come home

My daughter writes me every month a cheerful little note
About their colour telly, and the other things they've got
They have a son a likely lad, he's almost 21
And now they say he's go to go and fight in Vietnam

We're living on the pension now; it doesn't go too far,
Not much to show for a life that's been like one long bloody war,
When I think of all the wasted lives it makes you want to cry,
I'm not sure how to change things - but by Christ we've got to try.