Let Us Begin

Words & Music by John Denver
from One World (1986)


G
I am a son of a grassland farmer
                                 C
Western Oklahoma ninteen forty three
                                                    G
I always felt grateful to live in the land of the free

I gave up my father to South Korea
                             C
The mind of my brother to Vietnam
                                                 G
Now there's a banker who says I must give up my land

There are four generations of blood in this topsoil
                                 C
Four generations of love on this farm
                                                 G
Before I give up I would gladly give up my right arm

  Am         D              G
What are we making weapons for
  Em         C           D      G
Why keep on feeding the war machine
    Am           D           D7            G
We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
 Am       D            D7           G                      
Take it away from the hands of the poor
           C          G      D       G
Tell me, what are we making weapons for


I had a son and my son was a soldier
                                             C
He was so like my father, he was so much like me
                                                            G
To be a good comrade was the best that he dreamed he could be
    
He gave up his future to revolution
                                       C
His life to a battle that just can't be won
                                                   G
For this is not living, to live at the point of a gun
     
I remember the nine hundred days of Leningrad
                                       C
The sound of the dying, the cut of the cold
                                                   G
I remember the moments I prayed I would never grow old

  Am         D              G
What are we making weapons for
  Em         C           D      G
Why keep on feeding the war machine
    Am           D           D7            G
We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
 Am       D            D7           G                      
Take it away from the hands of the poor
           C          G      D       G
Tell me, what are we making weapons for


For the first time in my life I feel like a prisoner
                                      C
A slave to the ways of the powers that be
                                                        G
And I fear for my children, as I fear for the future I see

Tell me how can it be we're still fighting each other
                                  C
What does it take for a people to learn
                                                     G
If our song is not sung as a chorus, we surely will burn

  Am         D              G
What are we making weapons for
  Em         C           D      G
Why keep on feeding the war machine
    Am           D           D7            G
We take it right out of the mouths of our babies
 Am       D            D7           G                      
Take it away from the hands of the poor
           C          G      D       G
Tell me, what are we making weapons for

            D  G
Have we forgotten
                         D G
All the lives that were given
                        D G
All the vows that were taken
        C      D
Saying never again
 C           Am    G
Now for the first time
                   D    G
This could be the last time
    C             G    D                 
If peace is our vision
        G
Let us begin

            D  G
Have we forgotten
                         D G
All the lives that were given
                        D G
All the vows that were taken
        C      D
Saying never again
 C           Am    G
Now for the first time
                   D    G
This could be the last time
    C             G    D                 
If peace is our vision
        G    D        G     C  D  G
Let us begin, Let us begin.