The Soldiering Life

The Decemberists

Ambling madly all over the town 
The call to arms, you're likened to a whisper 
I liken to a radio 
You were a brick bag a bowery tuff, so rough 
They called you from a cartoona_³ 
Pulled out of your pantaloons 

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 

But I 
I never felt so much life 
Than tonight 
Huddled in the trenches 
Gazing on the battle field 
Our rifles blaze away 
We blaze away 

Corporal Bradley of regiment five 
And proud array standing by the bathing 
Soldiers and the stevedores 
We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep 
Our eyes align, swaddled in our civies 
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 bombazine 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 battle field 
Our rifles blaze away 
We blaze away 
We blaze away 
We blaze away