Al Stewart – Old Admirals (Guitar)

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I can well recall the first time I ever put to sea

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Was on the old Calcutta in eighteen fifty-three

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I was just a lad of fourteen years a midshipman to be

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To make my way in sailing ships

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Of the royal navy

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By the time that I was twenty-one I had sailed the world around

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Weathered storms in the China seas with the hatches battened down

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And made my way by starlight off the coast of Newfoundland

    D                 Am
And dined on beer and herrings 

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While the waves blew all around

Bm
I live in retirement now

    E                                    Em
And through my window comes the sound of seagulls

                   Bm
And sets my mind remembering

                                     E
The evening stars like memories sail far beyond the distant trees

    Em                         Bm
Way out across the open seas I hear them sing

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Oh the wooden ships they turned to iron and the iron ships to steel

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And shed their sails like autumn leaves with the turning of the wheel

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And I was given captain's rank and soon took under me

    D                  Am
The proudest ship that ever sailed

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For queen and country

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Ah the old queen she passed away with the new born century

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And I received my calling up to the admiralty

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The sands ran through the hourglass each day more rapidly

      D                   Am
As we watched the growing of the fleets

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Of High Germany

Bm
So at last the Great War blazed 

    E                            Em
The call to arms that never came writing letters

  Bm                              E
I may be old now in your eyes but all my years have made me wise

    Em                                 A
You don't see where the danger lies so call me back

A
Call me back

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But the war it ran it's course they could find no use for me

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And I live in the country now grandchildren on my knee

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And sometimes think in all this world the saddest thing to be

    D            Am         
Old admirals who feel the wind

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And never put to sea

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Now just like you I've sailed my dreams like ships across the sea

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And some of them have come on rocks and some faced mutiny

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And when they're sunken one by one I'll join that company

    D            Am
Old admirals who feel the wind

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And never put to sea