Chords for Ronnie Drew - The Old Man's Tale

[Am] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ At the turning of [G] the century _ I was a [Am] boy of five
_ Me father went to fight the boys and [G] he never came [C] back [E] alive _ _
All me [Am] mother was left to bring us up and [Em] no charity [Am] she'd seek
_ So she washed and scrubbed [G] and scraped along on seven and six [Am] a week
_ _ _ When I was 12, [G] I left the school _ and I went to find a [Am] job
_ And with grown kids me ma was glad [C] of the extra couple of bob
[G] _ _ [Am] I'm sure that longer schooling [Em] would have stood me in [Am] good stead
_ But you can't [G] afford refinement _
_ When you're struggling for [Am] your bread
_ _ And when the [G] Great War came along I didn't [Am] hesitate _
_ I took the royal shilling and [G] went off to [C] do me bit
[Bm] _ _ _
[Am] We fought in mud and tears and blood
[Em] Three years or [Am] thereabout
_ Till I copped some gas in [G] Flanders _ [Em] and was _ [Am] invalided out
_ _ And when the war was over _ and we'd finished with the guns
_ _ We got back into civvies because we [G] thought the fighting done
_ _ _ [Am] We'd won the right to live in peace, [Em] but we didn't [Am] have such luck
_ But soon we [G] found we had to fight [Em] for the right to [Am] go to work _
_ In _ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] 26 the general strike _ [Em]
saw me out on [Am] the streets
_ _ And I had a wife and kids by then [G] and their needs I [C] had to meet
[Bm] _ _ [Am] All the brave new world was coming and the Brotherhood of Man _
_ And when the strike was [G] over _
[Em] We were back where [Am] we began _
_ _ I struggled through the _ 30s
Out of work now and again. _
I saw the black shirts marching [G] and the things they did [C] in Spain.
[Bm] _ _ _ [Am] I
Brought me kids up decent [Em] and I taught them wrong [Am] from right.
_ Oh
What Hitler was [G] the boy that came?
_ [Em] And he taught them [Am] how to fight
_ _ My daughter was a [G] land girl
_ She got married to [C] a yank [Am] _ and _ they gave me son a medal _ [G] for stopping one of [C] Rommel's tanks
[E] _ He [Am] was wounded just before the end
_ And he convalesced in Rome _
And [Em] he went and married an Italian nurse
And he never bothered to come home _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ When we daughter writes [G] me once a month a cheerful little [Am] note
_ _ about their colored tellies [G] and the other things they've [C] got
_ _ [Ab] _
[Am] They've got a son a likely lad, [Em] he's nearly [Am] 21
_ _ But they tell me now [G] he's being called up _ [Em] to fight in [Am] Vietnam. _ _ _ _
Oh
We're living on the pension [D] now
And it doesn't go [Am] too far
_ Not much to show for a life.
It seems [G] like one long bloody [Cm] [E] war
_ _ And [Am] when you think of all the wasted lives, [Em] it makes you [Am] want to cry
_ _ I'm not sure how to [Gm] change things, _ but by Christ we'll have to try _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _