G     D    Am    Em   C         D      Em
Here lies poor John, John from Aberdeen,
    G        D       Am        Em
He gave his life for King and Country,
C   D      Em
Only seventeen;

Em


[Verse 1]
           Em                          D                   Em
Well the Generals sat down with their Port and a bottle of wine,
            G                  D
"We have a problem here right now,
                          Em
And we're running out of time,
       C                       G                    C
This madman of a Leader keeps changing our battle plans,
         G             D       C            D           Em
And the King said he wants no more of this troublesome man";


[Verse 2]
          Em                        D
So they called for the Captain and told him,
            Em              G
"We need a volunteer; our Leader is a traitor,
        D                  Em
And he must be gone from here;
    C                      G             C
A simple execution, but nothing can be seen."
          G       D       C        D      G
So they gave the job to John from Aberdeen;


[Chorus]
              C   G      D        G
And he said, "Oh no, it must be done,
C        G                D          G
Justice coming from the barrel of a gun;
C   G       D     Em  C
Oh no what can I do, someone has to pull the trigger,
D                         G       Em
Blame it on the Chain of Command,
C
I will have to pull the trigger,
 D                           G         Em
Blame it on the Chain of Command!"


[Verse 3]
       Em                        D                   Em
Right then at the killing poor John was taken by surprise,
          G                         D                  Em
And they told him in prison "Your story is a pack of lies!"
         C
And the General said in the Courtroom,
          G                C
"For this murder you will pay,
           G        D           C       D        G         Gm   F   Gm  Gm   F
You'll be shot at dawn, do you have anything to say?"


[Bridge]
                      Gm
And John said "I was only following orders,
       F                Gm
And I knew that it was wrong,
     Cm
But what else could I do?
     D
And now my life has gone."


[Chorus]
C   G        D      G
Oh no, what has he done,
    C        G           D            G
He killed a man with a bullet from a gun,
C   G         D       Em  C
Oh no, what could he do, someone had to pull the trigger,
D                           G
Blame it on the Chain of Command;
      C  G       D         G
Oh Oh Oh no, it has been done,
C        G               D           G
Justice coming from the barrel of a gun,
C   G        D        Em
Oh no, what could he do?
C
Someone had to pull the trigger,
D                             G    G/F#  Em
Blame it on the Chain of Command!
C
Someone had to pull the trigger,
D                              G
Blame it on the Chain of Command!"


[Outro]
                  G
The Chain of Command 
                  G
The Chain of Command 
                  G
The Chain of Command