The Old Mark II

Words: Stan Kelly
Tune: Traditional Irish

© 1961 Heathside Music

Demobbishly



Oh, there's sorrow in me heart, oh me old Mark Two
Since we lately had to part, oh me old Mark Two.
I was sad and feeling sore when I returned you to the store,
I'm not a soldier anymore, oh me old Mark Two.


I'll miss the drilling on the square, oh me old Mark Two,
For you were always there, oh me old Mark Two.
Only once you let me down, when I felled you to the ground,
Christ! you made an awful sound, oh me old Mark Two.


One more thing I'd like to tell, oh me old Mark Two,
Well I hope you rust to hell, oh me old Mark Two,
For the future I've planned with the plough firm in me hand,
We'll have peace throughout the land, oh me old Mark Two.


Postscript


GROWLING NCO: Who's your best friend?
ME: Me Mam.
GROWLING NCO: O no it bleedin' ain't -- it's your bleedin' rifle!


Some of us thought they were encumbrances and one soldier I knew
threw his rifle through a train window when he was posted. He
spent fifteen years, I believe, paying for it at 3d a week
stopped from his pay.

Peggy Seeger (Gtr) accompanies me on this song in Ewan MacColl's
antholgy Revival In Britain (Folkways Records, FW 8728).

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