World War One

What did I do in the Great World War?

I learned to peel potatoes and scrub the floor

I watched a British sunset go down behind the skyline forevermore

I learned to ride a soldier to the line

For days and nights in cattle-trucks of swine

I learned to shave myself in tea

With the fragments of a mirror on my knee

Ooh, so much for what I did, not for what I've done

I never played a hero, but I faced a gun

It's World War I, your parting sun

I'm a hundred years young

I learned to dodge the flying lancer lead

To keep the earth between the sniper and my head

When life is one hard labour and a soldier gets his rest

When they lay him in the daisies with a puncture in his chest

So much for what I did, not for what I've done

I never played a hero, but I faced a gun

It's World War I, your parting sun

And I'm a hundred years young, ooh, yeah

Ooh, sweet mother, don't you cry

Ooh, this will be the day that I die

I gathered souvenirs for home that I hoped to send

Carried around for months just to dump them in the end

Where all is done in darkness, where all is still and dead

Where living men are buried, and the dead are buried lead

So much for what I did, not for what I've done

I never played a hero, but I faced a gun

This is World War I, your parting sun

This is World War I, and it's just begun

This is World War I, your parting sun

I'm a hundred years young

I'm just a hundred years young

I'm just a hundred years young

And it's just begun

Ooh, ooh