Chords for Billy Bragg - Why We Build The Wall

_ _ One [Db] of the weirdest things about Brexit is there have been so many _ unforeseen _ [Bm] ramifications.
For [Bm] instance, last week there was a run in my country, there was [N] a run on Marmite.
_ _ There was a run on [G] Marmite, if you can believe that.
A word went [B] round that _ Unilever, a [Gb] manufacturer, were refusing to sell it to Tesco, the largest supermarket chain,
[Bm] because of disparities between the price and the [E] exchange rate.
All of a sudden it was like, oh my god, I'm going to go back to a [C] Marmite-less Britain.
_ _ _ What will we [G] do then?
_ Another of _ the unforeseen ramifications is that [B] as a result of that vote,
we in the UK have completely lost our sense of moral superiority over your [N] politics.
_ _ Like _ _ _ _ it was never there.
[Eb] You _ may be on the brink, we have jumped off head [D] first. _
_ _ I'm [G] reminded of that scene [C] in the Magnificent Seven.
[Eb] I can't remember the context, [Dm] but I [B] think Steve McQueen is [C] [Am] telling some anecdote to [Bb] Jule Brenner.
[G] He describes a man who's jumped off the top of a ten-storey building.
[B] They interview him as he passes the fifth floor.
They ask him, how's it going?
He says, so far so good.
_ _ [C] That's us.
[G] That's the UK.
We [Eb] haven't even pressed the button.
We have this button to press, Article 50, which begins the [Bm] process of negotiation.
The Prime Minister only said she might think [G] about doing it in the spring at the Palmeins.
_ _ [Am] We have no idea what we're going to do.
_ _ The moral superiority [A] levels have gone shooting up since the rise of Trump.
_ _ _ _ The [Db] number of people in my country appalled at the prospect [G] of building a wall along the Mexican border
[A] and getting [Am] the Mexicans to pay for it.
And yet, [Bm] tonight, [Eb] on the outskirts of Calais, in what they refer to in a terrible euphemism as the jungle,
there are people literally [B] living in wooden and cardboard shacks [Eb] that are policed by French gendarmes
paid [Gb] for by the British government to [B] stop them from coming through the Channel Tunnel.
And the European [Eb] Union, who has the moral high ground in the Brexit argument, as a community,
we pay [B] the Turks to stop refugees from perhaps the most horrible war zone, from Aleppo, from northern Syria,
to stop them from getting in boats to cross [G] into Europe in the hope of finding a better [B] life for their children.
So there are none of us, I think, without [N] sin, to cast the first stone [Am] on that issue.
_ [Db] _ [Am] I _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] first heard this song played at [Am] Occupy London in 2011 by [C] the woman from [Bb] Vermont who wrote it, Anais [Am] Mitchell.
She wrote _ _ [Db] this song and [Bb] it struck me then [A] how powerful it was in the way that [B] it talks about the _ situation we find ourselves in
with regard to [Am] the great migrations.
But [Abm] I started playing it, and the more I play it, the more [A] powerful it becomes.
It's called Why We Built The [Am] Wall. _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How does the wall keep us free?
My [Bm] children, my [Am] children, how does the wall keep us free?
_ _ _ _ How does the wall keep us [C] free?
The wall [Bm] keeps out the [C] enemy.
We built the [Bm] wall to keep us free, [Am] that's why.
We built the wall, we [C] built the wall [D] to [Am] keep us free. _ _
Who do we call the [C] enemy?
My [Bm] children, [Am] my children, who do we call the enemy?
_ _ _ _ _ Who do we call the enemy?
[C] The enemy is poverty.
The wall keeps out the enemy.
We built the [B] wall to keep us [E] free, that's [Am] why.
We built the wall, we built the wall [Am] to keep us free. _ _
[C] Because we [A] have and they have [C] not, my children, my [Am] children, because they want what we've got.
_ _ _ Because we have and they have [C] not, the enemy [Bm] is poverty.
The wall keeps out the enemy.
[C] We built the [Bm] wall to keep us free, [Am] that's why.
We built the wall, we built the wall to keep us free. _ _ _
What do we [B] have that they should [C] want?
My [G] children, my [Am] children, what do we have that they should [C] want?
_ _ _ What do we have that they [C] should want?
We have a [G] wall to work [Cm] upon.
We [G] have work and they have none, and our work is never [C] done.
My [Bm] children, my [C] children, and the war [Bm] is never [C] won.
The enemy [Bm] is poverty.
[C] The wall keeps [Bm] out the enemy.
[C] We built the wall to keep us [Am] free, that's why.
We built the wall, we built the wall to keep us free.
_ _ [C] We built the [D] wall to keep [A] us free.
[Am] _ _ _ _ _