I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be A Soldier
Composed by Al Piantadosi
Key: C
Lyrics by Alfred Bryan
Copyright 1915

Chords and Lyrics Provided by Judy Muldawer
For Educational Purposes Only
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File Created 11-24-2022
File Updated 06-11-2023

Verse 1:

    C                       Em       Am
Ten million soldiers to the war have gone
        D7       G7     C    G7
Who may never re-turn a-gain
    C                 B7          Em
Ten million moth-er's hearts must break
                 B7      Em
For the ones who died in vain

G
Head bowed down in sorrow
C             G
In her lonely years
  Am             D7
I heard a mother murmur
          G     GdimG7
Thro' her tears

Chorus:

  C               A7          D7
I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier
  G7                                C  CdimG7
I brought him up to be my pride and joy

    C                              G
Who dares to place a musket on his should-er
   Am               D7               G  CdimG7
To shoot some other mother's darling boy

    C            A7                 Am    D7
Let nations arbi-trate their future troub-les
     G7                              E7
It's time to lay the sword and gun a-way

        F            Cdim
There'd be no war to-day
   C                 A7
If mothers all would say,
   C               Am          G7  C
"I didn't raise my boy to be a sol-dier."

Verse 2:

     C                   Em       Am
What victory can cheer a mother's heart
         D7           G7       C    G7
When she looks at her blighted home?
     C           B7        Em
What victory can bring her back
                 B7       Em
All she cared to call her own.

G
Let each mother answer
C               G
In the years to be
   Am             D7
Re-member that my boy
           G  GdimG7
Belongs to me!

Chorus Repeat:

C


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