1916

Album: 1916 (1991)
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  • Sixteen 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
    And 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

    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

    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 we 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 Writer/s: IAN FRASER KILMISTER, KAARLE VIIKATE
    Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Ken from Philadelphia, PaThe Battle of the Somme was even worse than the quotes from Lemmy above would imply. 19,000 men did die.... but that was in the first minutes of the battle. The battle then continued for 6 months! Worst of all, the Brits had come up with an interesting recruiting tool prior to this battle. If a group of friends enlisted together, they were permitted to serve together. So groups of men from the same town or same neighborhood signed up and served in the same unit.... and, in those first few minutes on the Somme, all of the adult males in entire villages and towns all over England were wiped out.
  • Brian from Farleton, United KingdomIt was written to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle of the Somme. When over 11000 allied soldiers died "The day not yet over and ten thousand slain"
  • Todd from Toronto, Canadadefinately well written it fits along with i aint no nice guy
  • Nils from Oslo, NorwayGreat song, simply a great song.
    Very non-Motörhead in fact
see more comments

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