Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette chords by Christy Moore

Tuning: Standard (E A D G B E)

Difficulty: Novice

Verse 1:
Em                        C             D     Em
They dropped the bomb in '45 to end the world war,
C          D                Em
No-one had ever seen such a terrible sight before,
    C                    D            Em
The world looked on with eyes wide to see where it might lead,
    C           D           Em
The politics of power, they passed around their seed,
         D
It was a time to remember, we never can forget,
                  Em         C         D       Em
They were playin' Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette.

Verse 2:
Em                  C               D            Em
They arose like the saviours of our modern human race,
     C         D            Em
With radiation haloes, that hung about their face,
         C          D              Em
With the key to the sure-cure, the treatment of our ills,
C             D             Em
A hot-shot of cobalt, and a pocket-full of pills,
         D
Speaking always of the enemy, who lurked across the sea,
           Em       C               D       Em
While they crept in among us like a carrier disease.

Verse 3:
Em               C              D                Em
Deep down in the bunkers of the concrete and the lead,
C          D                 Em
Einstein's disciples working steadily ahead,
       C           D               Em
Making heavy metal power-plants to fire the city lights,
C                       D                  Em
All you can hear in the underground is the humming through the night,
        D
And the walls of tight security, circle all around,
           Em              C          D              Em
Where they spill out their poison and bury it in the ground.

Verse 4:
Em              C               D        Em
Holed up in the harbours hidden secretly away,
C             D               Em
War-heads and submarines await to make their play,
 C           D              Em
The military masterminds improve on their design,
    C             D             Em
The soldiers get  doped up and stumble through the lines,
          D
While the spills into the rivers get carried out by the tide,
     Em        C           D       Em
They call this security, I call it suicide.

Verse 5:
Em                C                D           Em
Our statesmen and leaders on their politicians pay,
C                 D                        Em
Quick to heed the hand that feeds, they're careful what they say,
              C          D             Em
They call out experts to assure us, to wave their magic wands,
            C            D               Em
This is the power of the future, And the future marches on,
         D
And they call in all their favours, all their political gains,
          Em              C          D             Em
While the spills fill the rivers and settle in the plains.

Verse:
Em               C                     D               Em
I know the minds behind them, they are riddled full of holes,
C         D                  Em
Not to be trusted with their hands at the controls,
      C              D              Em
Their eyesight it is twisted by the glory of their careers,
    C                 D           Em
The heaped praise and flattery is music to their ears,
   D
To listen to them talk about how it hasn't happened yet's,
             Em         C         D       Em
Like playing Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette.