Another Age

(album: Rehearsals For Retirement - 1969)

There's a man walking round the island with a snake cane
He picked it up in Thailand from a hurricane
And you know he's not gonna go there
He's been one time too long

Now all the gods are gone
The younger boys are drowning in a shallow sea
The night belongs to snipers in palm trees
And their sabres flashed like lightning
In the charge of the last brigade
They must have been afraid

Soldiers have their sorrow
The wretched have their rage
Pray for the aged it's the dawn of another age
Of another age
Of another age
Of another age

The blood running down the blackboard on a blank screen
The convicts shake their cages of a bad dream
And they'll coach you in the classroom that it cannot happen here
But it has happened here
I remember nothing that I memorized
I got my education from a black eye
And they'll teach you law and order
If you dare to raise your hand
Spare the glove and spoil the man

Soldiers have their sorrow
The wretched have their rage
Pray for the aged
It's the dawn of another age
Of another age
Of another age

Thomas Paine and Jesse James are old friends
And Robin Hood is riding on the road again
We were born in a revolution and we died in a wasted war
It's gone that way before
The dogs are chasing chicken bones across the lawn
If that was an election, I'm a Viet Cong
So I pledge allegiance against the flag
And the flaw for which it stands
I'll raise it if I can

Soldiers have their sorrow
The wretched have their rage
Pray for the aged
It's the dawn of another age
Of another age
Of another age
Of another age
Of another age