C                         F
They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
         Dmsus2     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

My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
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

The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
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

But how could we know when I was young
All the canges that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
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

The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone