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Our Father's War by Josh Ritter
Our Father's War
Tuning:E A D G B E
Capo:2nd fret
[Intro]
C C/B Am
F G
C C/B Am
F G
[Verse 1]
C C/B Am
Came out of arrivals was somethin' in his eyes that wasn't
F G
there and you'd been waitin' for him beneath the white florescent
C C/B Am
glare he throws his bags down he picks you up he's spinnin' you
F G C
around holdin' so tightly to you, bet you cannot even make a sound
C/B Am
this is your favorite mem'ry, of him polished beautifully,
F G
you thought about it often both reflexively and dutifully
C C/B Am
you didn't care who he was fighting or who he was fighting for
F G
only that your father finally come home from your father's war
[Interlude]
C C/B Am
F G
[Verse 2]
C C/B Am
now 18 years have passed and we're still in Afghanistan
G F
With IED's and armored HUMVEE's, Burger Kings, quicksand
C C/B Am
and the folks who started up the fight are getting old and dyin'
G F
and it's harder to remember just why the hell we're fighting
C C/B Am
so they wrap the reasons in the flag, show films of 9-11
G F
every Sunday they remind us that all soldiers go to heaven
C C/B Am
is a heaven for Americans, the ones who please the Lord
G F
Remember even Jesus had to fight his father's war
[Interlude]
C C/B Am
F G
[Verse 3]
C C/B Am
You meet a man you love, who reminds you of your father
G F
the way he used to be before his outlook got so dark
C C/B Am
he sweeps you off your feet, carries you across the threshhold
G F
of a new life then he ships out, you are 22 years old
C C/B Am
he calls you when he can from an undisclosed location
G F
then somethin' happens and he's sent home, put on medication
C C/B Am
he wakes up every night and an AR15 in his chest
G F
with your head upon his shoulder you can hear your father's war
[Interlude]
C C/B Am
F G
C C/B Am
F G
[Verse 4]
C C/B Am
but now laser guided missiles, beams, snuff films of their emulation
G F
fossil fuel removal architecture runs of radiation
C C/B Am
lines of code all stowed away down deep inside a terabite
G F
an economic serfdom has conferred upon the non-compliant
C C/B Am
you don't have to understand it all, that's okay, no, but it does,
G F
it's hard for souls to comprehend the horrors they come in
C C/B Am
and thus they do their work behind the wall behind a screen, behind the door,
G F
so they don't see what he saw when it was your father's war
[Interlude]
C C/B Am
F G
[Verse 5]
C C/B Am
so he'll finish off his tour of duty, in an office in Maryland
G F
facilitating drone strikes in the border towns of Pakistan
C C/B Am
this is all he's told you and it's amazing he's said anything
G F
but you've seen it on the cable news, the hospitals and weddings
C C/B Am
at first you think he'll be alright, he'll come home from work each evenin'
G F
but he's no longer all love and light, he's silent or he's seethin'
C C/B Am
and you love him more than anything, but you've seen this all before
G F
and in every way that matters this is still your father's war
[Verse 6]
C C/B Am
this is still your father's war, it's still your father's father's war
G F
and it's his father's war, and his father before his father's war
C C/B Am
and this is how it's gonna be, right down through generations
G F
war improvement only on it's cruelties with innovation
C C/B Am
lay the dead, and talk to dead, like flowers on cut roses
G F
improve the weak, and take revenge, and slaughter without notice
C C/B Am
and have everything we want, and with what's left we'll wipe the floor
G F
so maybe it's just easier to fight our father's war
[Outro]
C C/B Am
F G
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