C F
They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Dm9 Am
Of the respected gentlemen
F
They say it would be wine an' roses
D C
If England were for Englishmen again
C
Well I saw a dirty overcoat
Am
At the foot of the pillar of the road
G7
Propped inside was an old man
Am
Whom time would not erode
C
When the night was snapped by sirens
Am
Those blue lights circled fast
G7
The dancehall called for an' ambulance
Am
The bars all closed up fast
C
My silence gazing at the ceiling
Am
While roaming the single room
G7
I thought the old man could help me
C
If he could explain the gloom
Am
You really think it's all new
G7
You really think about it too
Am
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
C
I'll tell you athing or two
C F
I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
Am Em Am
But not the sorrow afterwards
Dm F
With my father dead and my mother ran off
C G
My brothers took the pay of hoods
C F
The twenties turned the north was dead
Am Em Am
The hunger strike came marching south
Dm F
At the garden party not a word was said
C G
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths
C
The next war began and my ship sailed
Am
With battle orders writ in bed
G7
In five long years of bullets and shells
Am
We left tem million dead
C
The few returned to old Piccadily
Am
We limped around Leicster Square
G7
The world was busy rebuilding itself
Am
The architects could not care
C
But how could we know when I was young
Am
All the canges that were to come?
G7
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
C
And now the terror of the scientific sun
Am
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
G7
They taught you how to touch your cap
Am
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
C
England never closed this gap
C F
So leave me now the moon is up
Am Em Am
But remember all the tales I tell
Dm F
The memories that you have dredged up
C
Are on letters forwarded from hell
C F
The streets were by now deserted
Am Em Am
The gangs had trudged off home
Dm F
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
C
An' old England was all alone
