The Gift Of Years chords by Eric Bogle

Tuning: Standard (E A D G B E)

Eric Bogle - The Gift of Years
From the album: Voices in the Wilderness (1990)



Verse 1:

D                 G            A7               D
Well, old friend, here I am, I told you I'd be back
                         G               A7                D
And as usual mate, I'm bloody late; it's 75 years down the track
                   G               A7              D
For the last time here I stand in this familiar foreign land
                       G                   A7             D
Back with the mates I left behind, fixed forever in their time

Verse 2:
 D                      G                A7               D
And all the ghosts, of all the boys who haunt this lonely place
                             G                    A7               D
Only one of them wears your cheery grin & your Queensland joker's face
                         G                A7                    D
But I drown in all the bloody dreams of helpless young men's dying screams
                         G                  A7                 D
I feel your hand give my arm a shake & your voice say "steady, mate"


Verse 3:
 D                        G                    A7             D
And the country that you died for, mate, you would not know it now
                       G                     A7             D
The future that we dreamed of, mate, got all twisted up somehow
                          G               A7               D
The peace that we were fighting for, the end to stupid senseless war
                G                 A7                   D
So it couldn't happen to our kids - well old mate, it did


Verse 4:

 D                     G                  A7                  D
But thank you for the gift of years & the flame that brightly burned
                                 G                        A7        D
For the time you bought & the lessons taught, tho' often wasted & unlearned
                          G          A7           D
"Lest we forget" cry the multitudes, as if I ever ever could
                         G          A7                D
So forgive an old man's tears, & thank you for the years