The Captain

        A                 E
Now the Captain called me to his bed
    D              A
He fumbled for my hand
 D                 A
Take these silver bars, he said
      E           A
I'm giving you command.
   A                     A7
Command of what, there's no one here
         D           A
There's only you and me
         E
All the rest are dead or in retreat
    D        A
Or with the enemy.

          A                   E
Complain, complain, that's all you've done
  D            A
Ever since we lost
    D                  A
If it's not the Crucifixion
      E             A
Then it's the Holocaust.
     A                     A7
May Christ have mercy on your soul
       D           A
For making such a joke
      E
Amid these hearts that burn like coal
           D                  A
And the flesh that rose like smoke.

   A                   E
I know that you have suffered, lad
     D             A
But suffer this awhile
      D                   A
Whatever makes a soldier sad
      E              A
Will make a killer smile.
     A                            A7
I'm leaving, Captain, I've got to go
         D               A
There's blood upon your hand
     E
But tell me, Captain, if you know
      D                A
Of a decent place to stand.

      A                       E
There is no decent place to stand
D         A
In a massacre
    D                     A
But if a woman take your hand
     E                  A
Then go and stand with her.
    A                   A7
I left a wife in Tennessee
      D           A
And a baby in Saigon
     E
I risked my life but not to hear
      D                A
Some country-western song.

        A                          E
Ah, but if you cannot raise your love
     D             A
To a very high degree
             D                              A
Then you're just the man I've been thinking of
    E                  A
So come and stand with me.
       A                         A7
Your standing days are done, I cried,
       D             A
You'll rally me no more
   E
I don't even know what side
    D                  A
We fought on, or what for.

     A                         E
I'm on the side that's always lost
    D                   A
Against the side of Heaven
    D                            A
I'm on the side of Snake-eyes tossed
    E                  A
Against the side of Seven
         A                         A7
And I've read the Bill of Human Rights
      D              A
And some of it was true
     E
But there wasn't any burden left
        D            A
So I'm laying it on you.

         A              E
Now the Captain he was dying
         D              A
But the Captain wasn't hurt
     D               A
The silver bars were in my hand
    E                 A
I pinned them to my shirt