Tom Paxton – Born On The Fourth Of July (Guitar)

     C                         Em
As a schoolboy I played with a plastic grenade

       F             G           C
It was grey and with caps it was loaded

       F                        C         Am
In the dirt we would cry and dramatically die

      F                G         C
As it flew through the air and exploded

     E                         Am
As a young man my dream was to be a marine

   F                          G
My flag was worth all I could bring it

    C                           Em
The country was young. When the anthem was sung

   F           G             C
It gave me the goosebumps to sing it

      F                       C
I was born on the fourth of July

F                      G
No one more loyal than I

        C                     Em
When my country said so I was ready to go

      F             G             C
And I wish I'd been left there to die

     C                         Em
When I landed in Nam I was with Uncle Sam

       F             G           C
I was fighting for God and my mother

       F                        C         Am
And I knew what to do when my first tour was through

      F                G         C
I signed up and went back for another

     E                         Am
But it all tumbled down when we ambushed the town

   F                          G
In the night how the metal was flying

    C                           Em
We blew it to hell. Really did our job well,

   F           G             C
But just women and kids did the dying

      F                       C
I was born on the fourth of July

F                      G
No one more loyal than I

        C                     Em
When my country said so I was ready to go

      F             G             C
And I wish I'd been left there to die

     C                         Em
In the damn DMZ it all ended for me

       F             G           C
The fighting broke out and we scattered

       F                        C         Am
One shot hit my heel, the last thing I feel

      F                G         C
The next hit my spine and it shattered

     E                         Am
In my hospital bed I could hear what was said

   F                          G
And the word will stay with me forever

    C                           Em
With my whole life ahead, my body was dead

   F           G             C
And the word they were using was never

     C                         Em
Now I wheel myself down to the crossroads of town

       F             G           C
To see the young girls and their lovers

       F                        C         Am
And my mind is afire, it's alive with desire

      F                G         C
Christ, I'd barely begun, now it's over

     E                         Am
In my wheelchair for life, my mechanical wife

   F                          G
I'm supposed to be cheerful and stoic

    C                           Em
I'm your old tried-and-true, Yankee Doodle to you

   F           G             C
Clean-cut, paralysed and heroic