The Soldiering Life

Artists : Decemberists, The : The Soldiering Life

ambling madly all over the town
the call to arms you liken to a whisper
i liken to a radio

you were a brick bag
a bowery tough, so rough
they called you from a cartoon
pulled out of your pantaloons

but you, my brother in arms
i'd rather i lose my limbs than let you come to harm

but you, my bomberzine doll,
the bullets may singe your skin
and the mortars may fall

but i, i never felt so much life
than tonight, huddled in the trenches
gazing on the battlefield
our rifles blaze away
we blaze away

corporal bradley of regiment five
in proud array, standing by the bathing
soldiers and the stevedors
we laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
our eyes are lying swaddled in our civvies
cradled in our dungarees

but you, my brother in arms
i'd rather i'd lose my limbs
than let you come to harm

but you, my bomberzine doll,
the bullets may singe your skin
and the mortars may fall

but i, i never felt so much life
than tonight
huddled in the trenches
gazing on the battlefield
our rifles blaze away
we blaze away
we blaze away
we blaze away