Old Man's Tale / Songs and Lyrics

Version 1

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X:1
T:Old Man's Tale
Z:Webmaster
C:Ian Campbell
K:
W:1
W:At the turning of the century I was a boy of five
W:My father went to fight the Boers and never came back alive
W:My mother left to bring us up no charity would she seek
W:So she washed and scrubbed and brought us up on seven and six a week
W:
W:2
W:When I was twelve I left the school and went to find a job
W:With growin' kids my ma was glad of the extra couple of bob
W:I know that better schooling would have stood me in good stead
W:But you can't afford refinements when you're struggling for your bread
W:
W:3
W:And when the Great War came along I didn't hesitate
W:I took the royal shilling and went off to do my bit
W:I fought in mud and tears and blood three years or thereabout
W:Then I copped some gas in Flanders and was invalided out
W:
W:4
W:And when the war was over and we'd finished with the guns
W:I got back into civvies and I thought the fighting done
W:I'd won the right to live in peace but I didn't have no luck
W:For soon I found I had to fight for the right to go to work
W:
W:5
W:In 'twenty-six the General Strike found me out on the street
W:For I'd a wife and kids by then and their needs I couldn't meet
W:But a brave new world was coming and the brotherhood of man
W:But when the strike was over we were back where we began
W:
W:6
W:I struggled through the 'Thirties out of work now and again
W:I saw the Black Shirts marching and the things the did in Spain
W:But I raised my children decent and I taught them wrong from right
W:Then Hitler was the lad that came and showed them how to fight
W:
W:7
W:My daughter was a land girl, she got married tae a Yank
W:They gave my son a gong for stopping one of Rommel's tanks
W:He was wounded just before the end and convalesced in Rome
W:Married an 'Eyetye' nurse and never bothered to come home
W:
W:8
W:My daughter writes me once a month a cheerful little note
W:About their colour telly and the other things they've got
W:She has a son, a likely lad, he's nearly twenty-one
W:Now she says they've called him up to fight in Vietnam
W:
W:9
W:We're living on the Pension now and it doesn't go too far
W:Not much to show for a life that seems like one long bloody war
W:When you think of all the wasted lives it makes you want to cry
W:I don't know how to change things but by Christ we'll have to try

Version 2

Version 3

Song Note

Song by Ian Campbell
Country of origin: England

Folk song references:

Song to be found in the following collection(s):

My Own Song Book