Old Enough To Kill A Man (WW1 anti-war prog-rock)

[Donna D]

In November 2007, I visited a number of locations where battles had been fought in WW1 at Ieper/Ypres (Flanders, Belgium). The image of the simple grave of a 15-year-old British soldier, Valentine Joe Strudwick, haunted me for months. I wrote the lyric to honour him and all the "boy" soldiers - of all nationalities - who died in WW1, and all soldiers who have died anywhere and at any time in senseless wars.

When will we ever learn?  

It's a bit of an epic.

Donna

Music/Arrangement/Instruments/Vocals: Billy Playle
Lyrics: Donna Devine

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Here's a slideshow. The music quality is pretty iffy, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brzq2ME1dek

Old Enough to Kill a Man

(v1)
My gravesite at Ieper is simple and neat,
Someone's placed poppies, they lie at my feet.
There's a faint scent of lilacs on wind from the west,
And I'm here with my friends who are also at rest.

(v2)
I no longer remember the fear and the pain,
The bitter cold wind and the mud and the rain,
The stretchers of canvas all stiffened with blood,
Or the screams of the men who were drowning in mud.

Chorus
My mam wept at the window
When they marched me off to France,
I was old enough to kill a man,
But still too young to dance.

(v3)
They sent me to Flanders where thousands had died,
The Generals made speeches, but they were all lies,
And if God was watching, He'd covered up His face,
And abandoned us there in that grim, wretched place.

(v4)
I fought like a man but I was only fifteen,
With a tin full of rations and a heart full of dreams,
Like any young lad with a future to build,
I never believed that I could be killed.

Chorus
My mam wept at the window
When they marched me off to France,
I was old enough to kill a man,
But still too young to dance.

(v5)
It wasn't the worst when the bullets spun past,
But the swiftness of death when the trench filled with gas,
And the shriek of the shells as they shattered the sky
Or of men who were broken and hung on barbed wire.

(v6)
The South Downs of Sussex are far, far away,
The mist still drifts down from the scarp to the bay,
It's a much different landscape from what we saw here,
With the scorched, mangled trees and the earth that was bare.


Bridge
Sometimes I wish I could sit up and breathe,
Tell you how you've all been deceived,
Because if you kill one man, you murder them all,
And there'll be no end to heartache and war.

(v7)
I see it's still greed and it's hatred and fear,
And I ask myself why did I need to die here.
I was too young for love but so hopeful of joy,
I fought like a man but I was only a boy.

(v8)
I'd throw off this tombstone that's pinning me down
And dance like a fool wearing Life as my crown!
But my gravestone at Ieper sits heavy and deep,
And someone's placed poppies, blood red, at my feet.

Chorus
My mam wept at the window
When they marched me off to France,
I was old enough to kill a man,
But still too young to dance

* At the end of the song is a spoken piece from Laurence Binyon's 1914 poem "For the Fallen".

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[lg]

Piepod,
Will listen to this properly later....then comment

LG

[Pipes]

A touching tune, full of feeling...
reminded me, a bit of a Pink Floyd tune..
love the line..."and dance like a fool wearing life as a crown" in fact lyrically wonderous if that's the word:)
apt...
Nick

[Gnasty]

Very touching song and the video is actually hard to watch, not in the sense that it makes me queezy but that those ARE real pics of death without a cause. Great lyrics Donna and the song does sound Floydish in the lead guitar areas but it hits home...NIce!!! I was hoping to get a war song out myself but it will have to wait till next year.

It`s a sad day to remember. But we all should!!

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Hi Donna, a very emotive piece of writing that has all your usual finesse. Again supurb production, top quality all round...............Willie

[chapperz66]

Wow.  A fitting tribute.  Not easy to watch as Gnasty says, but should be compulsory viewing in my opinion. 

It made me think, there are people on this site from all over the world, but I bet the families of most will have been affected by this and/or later conflicts.

Poignant lyrics and classy music.

Paul

[stoman]

I can't go past a song with Billy's and your name on it. You know you make me envious, but I must admit that I still enjoy your songs.

Regards,
  Steffen

[OsCKilO]

Very well done!

Lest we forget.

[Donna D]

Thank you, gentlemen, for having a listen and a look.  

Gnasty, the slideshow took an entire weekend – including an all-nighter on the Saturday - to create. I spent a lot of time trawling the internet for suitably heart-wrenching images, and I had to stop every so often to weep and rage, and then pull myself together again.  By the end of the weekend, I was a wreck. Felt as though I'd been hauled through a wringer.

You should have seen the pictures I didn't use.    If you can imagine it, some were much worse than those in the slideshow.

Billy did a tremendous job with the music and vocals. In a couple of places, his voice broke because he was close to tears. We didn't want to do a re-take though, as we felt the honest emotion was powerful.

Donna

[Kenneth]

Well, really at a loss for words on the pictures and the loss of life. War is evil.

You all did an amazing job on this. Sorry, but saddened and sickened at the loss and brutality.