e|-----------------|
B|-----------------|
G|-----------------|
D|-----------------|
A|-------3---0-----|
E|-0-0-3---3---3-0-|
Intro: Am F C
Verse
C Am F
He was almost blind
C
They say it happens when you've been punched to many times
Am F
His hands were stone
C
He was a bare-knuckle champion in an earlier life
Am F
It was hard not to stare
C
At his busted up nose and cauliflower ears
Am F
And he'd smile at me
C G
And say the toughest fighters have their souvenirs
F
How to carry on
C
When the hardest punch is thrown
F C
And take away the burden from our shoulders
Verse
Am F
He lived next door
C
He'd sometimes get with my father and talk about life
Am F
And sit on the porch
C
Drinkin' beer and remembering happier times
Am F
And I was a child
C
And I was far too young to ever understand
Am F
What it meant to have a son
C G
Who'd been drafted and killed in Vietnam
F
How to carry on
C
When the hardest punch is thrown
F C
And take away the burden from our shoulders
Verse
Am F
My father and I
C
Tried to keep him company so his mind could rest
Am F
On Saturday nights
C
We'd huddle 'round a black and white TV set
Am F
And we all stood and cheered
C
When Ali knocked out Foreman that night in Zaire
Am F
And later that night
C G
My father held his hand as he broke down and cried
F
How to carry on
C
When the hardest punch is thrown
F C
And take away the burden from our shoulders
Verse
Am F
And there stands a wall
C
In the clearing across from the national mall
Am F
It's crowded with names
C
Of the thousands of children that never came home
Am F
I stood in the rain
C
Watching dozens of mourners stumbling by
Am F
When I saw his name
C
I felt the ghost of our fathers kneeling at my side