The Sailor From Kiel

2.    The Sailor From Kiel


Words & Music by Kristian Svensson



Am                          E                         F                        C     /b

Guess you wonder what I'm doing here upon dry land

Dm                 C                      E                 E7

On my way to Berlin with a rifle in my hand

Am               E                   F                          C   /b          

Yes, I am a sailor but I'm walking side by side

Dm                            C                                  E                     E7

With boys from the western front where millions have died

Am                    E                               F                             C   /b

Do you see the ribbons 'round our arms all coloured red?

Dm7               C                        E                            E7

War for us is over, we'll have class struggle instead



         F                    C                                G                     Am  G

The men in power point their fingers now and ever more

         F                   C                         E                    E7

And say that our cowardness did sabotage the war

        F                             C                       G                           Am     G

But we will straighten our backs and say that madness ceased

     F   C      E                          Am

In 1918, when we won our peace



Graves are dug on all sides now across this continent

All because of leaders who were all called heavensent

They who got so used to that we'd follow and abide

That they tried to send the fleet for one last mass suicide

But we raised red flags and turned our gunship battery

To threaten the few ships that had not joined our mutiny



The men in power...



Now they call us traitors and that just might be fair

But traitors to a government that stands with asses bare

Their only naked motive is constant greed for more

And if you let them they will sure find ways to start new wars

After 4 years in the trenches and a 1000 on our knees

We rose up and like in Russia our emperor must flee



The men in power...

We turned on our masters, lost the war and won our peace

German sailors during the 1918 Kiel mutiny.