[Intro - Interlocking Staccato Bamboo Pipes, Cyclic Hand Percussion, No Full Drums] [Verse 1 - Contained Male Vocal, Bamboo Pipes Continue] Before the rifles knew their hands They had their names, they had their homes Then war came down the eastern roads And took the young where no child goes Some disappeared into the bush Some learned the weight they had to bear The war wore more than one man's flag But children vanished everywhere [Pre-Chorus - Band Restrained, Tension Building] Year after year The road went on Year after year They carried on [Chorus - Open Soaring Melody] We were young When the war found us We were young When it took our names We won't come back unchanged We were young We were young [Verse 2 - Full Band, Heavier, Insistent Interlocking Pipes] The years ran on through Kono's roads While diamonds crossed another line Some learned to fear the hands they served Some became the hands they feared And girls came back the records missed Some with no gun left to lay down Some carried children of their own Uncounted when the fighting stopped [Pre-Chorus - Tension Rising] Year after year The road went on Year after year Until the guns were gone [Chorus - Open Soaring Melody, Communal Response] We were young When the war found us We were young When it took our names We won't come back unchanged We were young We were young [Verse 3 - Calm, Intimate, Thinning] Then one by one the weapons fell From hands that once had learned their weight The roads led back toward familiar doors. But home was waiting there with fear. Some doors stayed closed. Some fires made a little room. No peace could give the lost years back. It only gave them somewhere to begin. [Lead] Take my haaaaaand— [Choir] WE ARE HERE. [Lead] Though I am not who left this place— [Choir] WE ARE HERE. [Lead] Though home may never feel the same— [Choir] WE ARE HERE. [Interlude - Bamboo Pipes Return, Band Gradually Rebuilds] [Final Chorus - Full Band, Lead and Communal Choir] We were young When the war found us We were young When it took our names We didn't come back unchanged But we came back We came back [Outro - Original Bamboo Pipe Motif, Band Recedes] Year after year The road goes on
