"68 Guns" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band The Alarm, which was released as a single in September 1983 and later appeared on their debut album Declaration in February 1984.
The song was written by Alarm members Mike Peters and Eddie MacDonald and reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's first Top 40 appearance and their highest ever position on that chart. The song also reached #39 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States, their first ever chart position in that country.
The song was recorded at Good Earth Studios and mixed at Abbey Road Studios.
The lyrics were inspired by a book that Peters read on the 1960s street gangs of Glasgow.
All songs written by Mike Peters and Eddie MacDonald.
And now they're trying to take my life away
Forever young I cannot stay
On every corner I can see them there
They don't know my name they don't know my kind
They're after you with their promises
(Promises of love)
They're after you to sign your life away
(Yeah, yeaoh)
Sixty-eight Guns will never die
Sixty-eight Guns our battle cry
Sixty-eight Guns
Sixty-eight Guns
Oh, the Sixty-eight
Living in the backstreets
That's our home from home
The painted walls were all we've ever known
æ
£he Guns Forever' that's our battle cry
It is the flag that we fly so high
For every day they'll try and drag us down
(Drag us down and down)
I cry with anger I have done no crime
(Yeah, yeaoh)
Sixty-eight Guns will never die
Sixty-eight Guns our battle cry
Sixty-eight Guns will never die
Sixty-eight Guns our battle cry
Sixty-eight Guns
Sixty-eight Guns
The Sixty-eight
Up on the terrace I can hear the crowd roar
Sixty Eight Guns
And in the subway I can hear them whisper
Sixty Eight Guns
Through all the raging glory of the years
We never once thought of the fears
For what we'd do when the battle cry was over .
Nothing lasts forever is all they seem to tell you when you're young
(I, I do swear
To unbreak the promise
To unbreak the vow
Unbreak it)
When you're young
Have no illusion, no disillusion
Unbreak the promise
Unbreak the vow
Uphold the promise
SIXTY EIGHT GUNS
Sixty-eight Guns will never die
Sixty-eight Guns our battle cry
Sixty-eight Guns will never die
Sixty-eight Guns our battle cry
Sixty-eight Guns
Sixty-eight Guns
The sixty eight guns
Sixty eight guns