Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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From the album Can't Steal My Fire: The Songs of David Olney.
newwestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cant-steal-my-fire-the-songs-of-david-olney

Video by Duende Vision

1917 by David Olney

The strange young man who comes to me
A soldier on a three day spree
He needs one night's cheap ecstasy
And a woman's arms to hide him
He greets me with a courtly bow
And hides his pain by acting proud
He drinks too much and he laughs too loud
How can I deny him

Let us dance beneath the moon
I'll sing to you 'Claire de Lune'
The morning always comes too soon
But tonight the war is over

He speaks to me in schoolboy French
Of a soldiers life inside a trench
Of the look of death and the ghastly stench
I do my best to please him
He puts two roses in a vase
Two roses sadly out of place
Like the gallant smile on his haggard face
Playfully I tease him

Hold me neath the Paris skies
Let's not talk of how or why
Tomorrow's soon enough to die
But tonight the war is over

We make love too hard too fast
He falls asleep his face a mask
He wakes with the shakes and he drinks from his flask
I put my arms around him
They die in the trenches and they die in the air
In Belguim and France the dead are everywhere
They die so so fast there's no time to prepare
A decent grave to surround them

Old world glory old world fame
The old worlds gone gone up in flames
Nothing will ever be the same
And nothing lasts forever
Oh I'd pray for him but I've forgotten how
And there's nothing nothing that can save him now
There's always another with the same funny bow
And who am I to deny them

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