Mick Ryans Lament

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Well my name is Mic Ryan, I’m lyin’ here still
C                           G
In a lonely spot near where I was killed
     C
By a red man defending his native land,
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In the place that they call the Little Big Horn
      C
And I swear I did not see the irony
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when I rode with the Seventh Calvary
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I thought that we fought for the land of the free
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when we rode from Fort Lincoln that morning


[Chorus]
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And the band they played the Garryowen,
F
Brass was shining, flags a flowin’
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I swear if I had only known
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I’d have wished that I’d died back in Vicksburg


Continues after the ad
[Verse]
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For my brother and me, we had barely escaped,
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from the Hell that was Ireland in ‘48
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Two angry young lads who had learned how to hate
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But we loved the idea of Amerikay
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And we cursed our cousins who fought and bled
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in their bloody coats of bloody red
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The sun never sets on the bloody dead
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of those who have chosen an empire


[Chorus]
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But we’d find a better life somehow
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in the land where no man has to bow
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It seemed right then and it seems right now
     C         G           C
that Paddy he died for the union


[Verse]
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Ah, but Michael he somehow got turned around
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He had stolen the dream that he thought he’d found.
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Now I never will see that holy ground
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For I turned into something I hated


[Chorus]
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And I’m haunted by the Garryowen,
F
Drums a beatin, bugles blowin’
  C        Em    Am   C
I swear if I had only known,
    C           G              C
I’d lie with my brother in Vicksburg
        C
And the band they played the Garryowen,
F
Brass was shinin’ flags a flowin’
  C        Em    Am    C
I swear if I had only known,
    C           G               C
I’d lie with my brother in Vicksburg