We were the children of 45, loaded like pistols and taught how to die

We looked the enemy straight in the eye (and never surrender)

Through trenches dug in the back of my mind, I go over the top time after time

Me and the ones, we left behind (faces I'll always remember)



Now there's no fight left within me, but the writing of this wrong

As nations we're divided but as people we are one

Like brothers in blood it seems that we've been too long a soldier



In the city of monuments, among the flags of all governments

The order of battle is written in the shadows of a hard black line

Where people cry for a nation's scars

And heros sleep beneath a blanket of stars

Too young to die but never too old to play the general's game



Now there's no life left within them, but their memory lingers on

As nations we're divided but as people we are one

For brothers in blood we sing that we've been too long a soldier



Eternal flames blow in the wind, I've been too long a soldier

Captain of the guard, I'm coming in, too long, too long a soldier

I've seen so much worth dying for, so little worth killing over



(Solo)



Eternal flames blow in the wind, I've been too long a soldier

Captain of the guard, I'm coming in, too long, too long a soldier

I've seen so much worth dying for, so little worth killing over



Soldiers gone before me, I will surely fade away

My eyes have seen the glory and the suffering and the pain

I've been too long a soldier, too long, too long a soldier

I've been too long a soldier (too long a soldier)



Eternal flames blow in the wind (too long a soldier)

My eyes have seen the glory of (too long a soldier)

Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light



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