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  
Am
If he could explain the gloom  
 C
You really think it's all new  
  Am
You really think about it too  
G7
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me  
 Am
I'll tell you a thing 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 red  
   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  
Am 
And now the terror of the scientific sun  
C
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs  
Am
They taught you how to touch your cap  
G7
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace  
Am
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   Am   G7   Am
  
   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