1916

[Verse 1]

16 years old when I went to the war

To fight for a land fit for heroes

God on my side, and a gun in my hand

Chasing my days down to zero

And I marched and I fought and I bled

And I died & I never did get any older

But I knew at the time, That a year in the line

Was a long enough life for a soldier

[Verse 2]

We all volunteered

And we wrote down our names

And we added two years to our ages

Eager for life and ahead of the game

Ready for history's pages

And we brawled and we fought

And we whored 'til we stood

Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder

A thirst for the Hun

We were food for the gun

And that's what you are when you're soldiers

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 3]

I heard my friend cry

And he sank to his knees, coughing blood

As he screamed for his mother

And I fell by his side

And that's how he died

Clinging like kids to each other

And I lay in the mud

And the guts and the blood

And I wept as his body grew colder

And I called for my mother

And she never came

Though it wasn't my fault

And I wasn't to blame

The day not half over

And ten thousand slain, and now

There's nobody remembers our names

And that's how it is for a soldier