The captain

Intro: C      G      F      C


        C                 G
Now the Captain called me to his bed
    F              C
He fumbled for my hand
  F                 C
"Take these silver bars," he said
      G           C
"I'm giving you command."
    C                     Em
"Command of what, there's no one here
         F           C
There's only you and me
         G
All the rest are dead or in retreat
    F        C
Or with the enemy."


     C                       G
"Complain, complain, that's all you've done
 F             C
Ever since we lost
         F            C
If it's not the Crucifixion
      G            C
Then it's the Holocaust."
       C               Em
"May Christ have mercy on your soul
    F             C
For making such a joke
  G
Amid these hearts that burn like coal
          F                    C
And the flesh that rose like smoke."


    C                  G
"I know that you have suffered, lad
     F             C
But suffer this awhile
    F             C
Whatever makes a soldier sad
      G              C
Will make a killer smile."
       C                    Em
"I'm leaving, Captain, I've got to go
          F              C
There's blood upon your hand
     G
But tell me, Captain, if you know
      F                C
Of a decent place to stand."


       C              G
"There is no decent place to stand
F         C
In a massacre
    F           C
But if a woman take your hand
     G                 C
Then go and stand with her."
    C              Em
"I left a wife in Tennessee
       F         C
And a baby in Saigon
   G
I risked my life but not to hear
       F              C
Some country-western song."


         C               G
"Ah, but if you cannot raise your love
      F           C
To a very high degree
             F                       C
Then you're just the man I've been thinking of
    G                  C
So come and stand with me."
        C                Em
"Your standing days are done," I cried,
         F           C
"You'll rally me no more
G
I don't even know what side
     F                 C
We fought on, or what for."


     C                   G
"I'm on the side that's always lost
  F                  C
Against the side of Heaven
    F                C
I'm on the side of Snake-eyes tossed
  G                  C
Against the side of Seven
          C                Em
And I've read the Bill of Human Rights
     F              C
And some of it was true
           G
But there wasn't any burden left
         F           C
So I'm laying it on you."


         C              G
Now the Captain he was dying
         F              C
But the Captain wasn't hurt
     F               C
The silver bars were in my hand
    G                 C
I pinned them to my shirt


C      Em     F      C
G      G      F      C


C      G      F      C
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C      Em     F      C
G      G...