C Am F C
The pilots playing poker in the cockpit of the plane,
Am F Dm
the casualties arriving like the dropping of the rain.
C Am F G
And a mountain of machinery will fall before a man,
C F G C
when you're white boots marching in a yellow land
C Am F C
It's written in the ashes of the village towns we burn,
Am F Dm
it's written in the empty beds of fathers unreturned.
C Am F G
And the chocolate in the children’s eyes will never understand,
C F G C
when you're white boots marching in a yellow land.
Am
Red blow the bugles of the dawn,
G
the morning has arrived, you must be gone.
F G
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls,
C Bb - C
like old whores following tired armies.
C Am F C
Train them well, the men who will be fighting by your side,
Am F Dm
and never turn your back, if the battle turns the tide,
C Am F G
for the colours of a civil war are louder than commands,
C F G C
when you're white boots marching in a yellow land.
C Am F C
Blow them from the forest and burn them from your sight,
Am F Dm
tie their hands behind their backs, and question through the night.
C Am F G
But when the firing squad is ready, they'll be spitting where they stand,
C F G C
at the white boots marching in a yellow land.
Am
Red blow the bugles of the dawn,
G
the morning has arrived, you must be gone.
F G
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls,
C Bb - C
like old whores following tired armies.
C Am F C
The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage,
Am F Dm
raw recruits are lining up like coffins in a cage.
C Am F G
Oh, we're fighting in a war we lost before the war began,
C F G C
we're the white boots marching in a yellow land.
Am
Red blow the bugles of the dawn,
G
the morning has arrived you must be gone.
F G
And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls,
C Bb - C
like old whores following tired armies.