by smith/kaye/ray/daugherty/shanahan



the fans were whirlin' 

like the blades of a 'copter 

liftin' into the skies above some foreign land 

soaked with the bodies of so many friends. 



Johnny waved 

he was on his way home 

he waved goodbye to his comrades in arms, 

and all the twisted things he'd seen. 

he waved goodbye 

and the blades hit 

something 

maybe just Fate, but the blades hit 

the 'copter went up in flames 

and Johnny never went marchin' home 

Johnny never went marchin' home 



they took his name 

and they carved it on a slab of marble 

with several thousand other names 

all the fallen idols 

the apples of their mother's eye 

just another name 



meanwhile 

back on that burning shore 

Johnny's comrades stood speechless 

they looked with uh-uh-uh-uh disbelieving eyes 

as those bits of metal and the embers 

the embers of his eyes 

fanned out into the air 

black dust 

flames 



oh Johnny! some day they'll make a movie about you 

and in the making of that movie 

some mad apocalypse 

it will become even stranger than the simple act 

just a boy going up up up 

just a boy going up 

in flames in the smoke 

just another life 

just another breath 

and who'll remember 

oh eternity now 

as eternal as a sheet of marble 

eternal as a slab on a green hill 

and your name 

and all your fallen brothers 

and all the ones not cut 

all the ones remembered only in the hearts 

a mother a father a brother a sister a lover a son a daughter 

shall not shall not fade shall not fade 



your ancestors salute you 

and the gods of your ancestors salute you 

having having been formed by the minds of your ancestors 

the gods of your ancestors salute you 

having been formed by your ancestors 

the gods of your ancestors salute you 

they draw you in they draw you through 

they draw they draw you through that golden door 



mornin' boy [come on in boy] 

we remember you 

we conceived of you 

we conceived of your breath 

we conceived of the whole human race 

and we conceived it to be a beautiful thing 

like a tulip bending in the wind 

sometimes it comes back to us 

in the form of a handful of dust 

comes back in the form of a smitten child 

our raped daughters, ah the broken bones 

souls cleaved from hearts 

they come back to us 

and our hands are filled with their rotting tissues 

but we turn not our backs 

we press our lips 

into their cancer into the dust into the remains of each one 

and that love is there and will greet you, will greet you 

mornin' boy [come on in boy] 

it's eternal love 



well here, go ahead, run through that flame 

awww man, running through your mind 

you took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tail 

and you swirled it around your head 

and you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of it 

and you knew that it would be your own 

but you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it die 

because you know you would feel your own 

you would feel your own 

but you're remembered! 

you're remembered! 

you're remembered DEAD! 

you're remembered DEAD! 

you're remembered DEAD! 

we remember 

we remember 

we remember 

everything 

everything