Once I Was A Lady

A                  E                    A
Once I was a lady, dressed in black and blue
A                                 B                  E
Used to walk the boulevard, cause that's what ladies do
A                              D              A
My nails were always polished, my secrets always hid
A                                       E            A
I just did whatever it was that all the other ladies did

at nighttime around my bedside I keep a million lights
one for every soldier who fought the war and died
for my husband is a landlord whose eyes are full of greed
and his army full of young men whom he never even sees


    F#m                                                             D
But now I am somebody else with golden books upon my shelves and diamonds
   A
on my mind
F#m
Strolling through the woods at night to find the little bits of light
D               E
others leave behind


A                           E            A
Once I was a soldier in the army of some lord
A                                      B                E
I have never even seen him, I just got paid to hold his sword
A                            D                  A
I kept my armour shiny and I kept my secrets hid
A                              E             A
and whatever I was told to do, that is what I did

A                              E              A
when I think about it now it's hard for me to say
A                                 B                E
whether I had a choice in life to do the things my way
        A                              D              A
because by the time I heard about that lady's bedside state
A                                      E           A
I had already gone far too far, it was already too late



    F#m                                                             D
But now I am somebody else with golden books upon my shelves and diamonds
   A
on my mind
F#m
Strolling through the woods at night to find the little bits of light
D               E
others leave behind


A                              E          A
Once I was a student, I had to pick up my degree
      A                                    B
And I thought about the years gone by, the years that numbered
E
three
    A                                       D
How things that had seemed important turned out to be a joke
    A                                  E              A
And things that had seemed natural had all gone up in smoke


Earlier a crowd had come to see me win my prize
I felt like I deserved it, it was justice in my eyes
but the only thing that I could think was 'what am I gonna do?
when all of this is over, when my days of hope are through?'


    F#m                                                             D
But now I am somebody else with golden books upon my shelves and diamonds
   A
on my mind
F#m
Strolling through the woods at night to find the little bits of light
D               E
others leave behind