Lyrics Peter Doherty

Peter Doherty

1939 Returning

Captured clandestine

Crawled into the lights

He knew he was in for a shoeing

Just wasn't to be his night

Dragged out of the frozen Rhine

For the Motherland and the Third Reich

A toeing's as good as a shoeing

When it's not to be your night, your night

Tread carefully, so carefully upon the drifting ice

Caught behind enemy lines in 1939

For Germany he sacrificed his life

Caught behind enemy lines there in 1939

Kids knee deep in rubble

London urchins gray with dust

Packed off ours in evacuations

To farmers' wives, green and pleasant lives

Far from the doodlebugs

Nanna doll, she still remembers

Leaving town in worn out shoes

Now she's back out west in sheltered accommodations

Homes for the old where pills aren't the only blues

Tread carefully, so carefully upon the drifting ice

Staring blank into the TV guide in 2009

How it's hurting me, I've only seen her twice

Since you went west for the second time since 1939, 39, 39