Ochs Phil

A TOAST TO THOSE WHO ARE GONE


by Phil Ochs





submitted by Andrea Baroni (baroni_andrea@hotmail.com)


Standard tuning








C                    Am


Many's the hour I've lain by my window


    C                         Am


and thought of the people who carried the burden


    C                                Am


Who marched in the strange fields in search of an answers


    C                       Am        G


And ended their journeys an unwilling hero





Am               Em                      Am             G


Here's a song to those who are gone with never a reason why


      Em                       Am


And a toast of the wine at the end of the line


      D7                       G


And a toll of the bell for the next one to die





Back in the coal fields of old Harlan county


Some talked of the union, some talked of good wages


And they lined them up in the dark of the forests


And shot them down without asking no questions





Here's a song to those who are gone with never a reason why


And a toast of the wine to the end of the line


And a toll of the bell for the next one to die





And over the ocean, to the red Spanish soil


came the lincoln brigade with their dreams 


But they fell in the fire of germany's bombing


And they fell 'cause no one would hear their sad warning





Here's a song to those who are gone with never a reason why


And a toast of the wine at the end of the line


And a toll of the bell for the next one to die





In old Alabama, in old MississippiTwo states of the union so often found guilty


They came on the busses, they came on the marches


And they lay in the jails or they fell by the highway





Here's a song to those who are gone with never a reason why


And a toast of the wine at the end of the line


And a toll of the bell for the next one to die





The state it was texas, the town it was Dallas


In the flash of a rifle a life was soon over


And nobody thought of the past million murders


And the long list of irony(?) had found a new champion





Here's a song to those who are gone with never a reason why


And a toast of the wine at the end of the line


And a toll of the bell for the next one to die