The Decemberists
The Soldiering Life
[Verse 1]
Ambling madly all over the town
The call to arms, you're likened to a whisper
I liken to a radio
You were a brickbat, a Bowery tough, so rough
They culled you from a cartoon
Pulled out of your pantaloons
[Pre-Chorus]
But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs than let you come to harm
But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin and the mortars may fall
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
Corporal Bradley of Regiment Five
In proud array standing by the bathing
Soldiers and the stevedores
We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
Our eyes aligned, swaddled in our civies
Cradled in our dungarees
[Pre-Chorus]
But you, my brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs than let you come to harm
But you, my bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin and the mortars may fall
[Chorus]
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
[Refrain]
We blaze away
We blaze away