The Big Parade

G   D   |   Em  |


[Verse 1]
G            D    Em
  Detroit to    D.C.,
C              D              Am
  Night train, capitol, parts east
G          D           Em
Lone young man takes a seat
A          D             Em
And by the rhythm of the rails
G         D                Em
  Reading all his mother's mail
       C    D               Am
From a city boy in a jungle town
G          D      Em
Postmarked   : Saigon


[Refrain]
G        C                 G
He'll go live his mother's dream
         G         C               D
Join the slowest parade he'll ever see
              C               D                 Am
Her weight of sorrows carried long and carried far
G              Am            Em
  "Take these, Tommy, to the wall"
                       D    G
Metro line to the mall site with a tour of Japanese
     Em
He's wandering and lost until
  G
A vet in worn fatigues
          C       G          Am
Takes him down to where they belong.


[Vers 2]
G        D        Em
  Near a soldier,    an ex-marine
       G        D          Em
With a tattooed dagger and eagle trembling
             C            D              Am
He bites his lip beside a widow breaking down
              G            D              Em
She takes her purple heart,  makes a fist,   strikes the wall


[Refrain]
G             C      G
  All come to live a dream
            G         C                 D
To join the slowest parade they'll ever see
                C               D                Am
Their weight of sorrows carried long and carried far
    G    Am        Em
Are taken   to the wall
                          D  G
It's 40 paces to the year      that he was slain
    Em                                D     G
His hand's slipping down the wall for it's slick with rain
C         G                       Am   G
How would life have ever been the same
        C               G              Am     G
If this wall had carved in it one less name?


[Bridge]
        Em                            D   G
But for Christ's sake, he's been dead     over 20 years
   Em
He leaves the letters asking
     G
"who caused my mother's tears
       C          G           Am
Was it Washington or the Viet Cong?"


[Verse 3]
G        D        Em
  Slow deliberate     steps are involved
   G           D            Em
He takes them away from the black granite wall
           C         D                  Am
Toward the other monuments so white and clean
G      D                  Em
  O, Potomac, what you've seen
C       D           Am
Abraham had his war too
       G          Am
But an honest war
                     Em
Or so it's taught in school.