Capo 1st fret

Standard (EADGBE)

Verse 1

I'm young and I'm strong,

I've got this God forsaken world by the balls.

I've got a one-way ticket to freedom

Ain't no one now, gonna take it from me

Verse 2

I was a soldier, age twenty-one

In a war not sure what I was fighting for

And yet I turned from a boy to a man there

Goodbye to innocence, and a sweet sixteen

NOTE:

To get a smooth flow entering the chorus, walk down from G to Em:

Strum the G chord, then Pick 6th String 3rd Fret, then 6th String 2nd Fret, then strum

the Em chord.)

Chorus

My whole life, I could not arrange

My wicked ways, I could never change

Don't try, don't try now, to understand

This is the ballad, of a lonely man

Verse 3

Close to me, is a photograph

Of a family left far, far behind

Ah, once I had love, it slipped away from

I searched a lifetime, but I could not find

Verse 4

In a hospital bed, I'm violently ill

Just one more drink nurse I swear to God

I've got my St. Anthony and my whiskey

Yes I'm a veteran of three foreign wars.

Chorus

Play the chorus once, then, after “Don’t try, don’t try now, to understand.”

repeat last line of chorus three more times:

This is the ballad, of a lonely man,

This is ballad, of a lonely man,

This is the ballad, of a lone-ly man

-- Finish with a hard strum on .

As I said, if you want the mp3 of Ness playing this version,

e-mail me. Enjoy.

Lowell