MICHAEL WESTON KING
I DIDN’T RAISE MY BOY TO BE A SOLDIER
(GHOSTWRITER REMIX)

Michael Weston King: vocals; Sian James: piano; Matt Gale: accordion;
Ghostwriter: bass, electronics, glockenspiel, samples
Produced by Michael Weston King & Ghostwriter
Recorded and mixed by Gwyn Jones & Ghostwriter at Bos Studios, LLanerfyl, Wales
& The Rose Barn, Devon
(P) & (C) Michael Weston King & Ghostwriter 2013
www.michaelwestonking.com / http://minutebook.co.uk

”Having decided in 2010 to make an album of re-worked protest songs, I spent 6 months researching a lot of old music. It is remarkable, and worrying, how many old, old songs with such a powerful message are still relevant today. It seems we have learned so little in the past 100 years. This song is a real case in point. The lyrics date back to 1915, written in protest by Alfred Bryan, at America's involvement in WW1. As the bodies continue to be flown home from Iraq and Afghanistan and unloaded on English soil, near the village of Wooton Basset,
these words, for countless parents, sadly still ring true.”

Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again
Ten million mothers' hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur thro' her tears

I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a rifle on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations talk through their troubles,
It’s time to put the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier

What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her empty home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the years to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!

I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a rifle on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations talk through their troubles,
It’s time to put the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier

(Michael Weston King, Ghostwriter & Alfred Bryan, KEC Int Ltd Purple Dollar, Sony/ATV)