I boarded the Pullman somewhere east of Council Bluffs
I've been riding this train to the west now for so long
That I can't remember when
The clouds are at the wind's command
A great extinction is close at hand
But we shall live again
♪
We shall live again
We shall live again
Though our religion's the same as the pigeons
From Francis of Assisi
To the fans of AC-DC
We all shall live again
But the nightingales were seized with a panic
As warplanes flew o'er the green Atlantic
But the day was fair beyond compare
And the long parade and the serenade
We shall live again
We shall live again
We shall live again
We'll be painting roses with grandma Moses
And we'll feel just as free and young
As those flowers we stand among
And we shall live again
♪
Well, this train is like an endless parade
That passes by each and every home in each and every town
And the women and the children and the men
They hover to the doorways and the windows
Some hop on board, some wave farewell
Or weep at the beauty of the crossing bell
But we all shall live again
I've been in most of these Motels on the edge of reality
I even rode my donkey over the mountains of Argentina
Some die on the steppes of a frozen wasteland
Some OD on the road to Graceland
But we all shall live again
We shall live again
We shall live again
I find these truth to be self-evident
In this life where any joyful thing
Is paid to fold in suffering
We shall live again
♪
But the train pressed on under night's crumbling waves
Through the dreamlike districts of the vanished days
A dead man falls from a trotting horse
The rivers run backward to their ancient source
We all shall live again
But the dining car is filled mostly with Victorian-era ghosts
And some sharpshooters firing at angels
Like startled ducks on the horizon
But you here with me when I close my eyes
Giving alms to trembling palms
Your eyes so green and labyrinthine
Hey, you remember Hegel, that beautiful son of a bitch
Or Marcel Proust, you thought he ruled the roosts?
He's drinking a drink that's black as ink
Watching a candied cherry sink
It's like the sorrow of the world distilled
We shall live again
We shall live again
All the great nations of the Western plains
There'll be no more anguish and no more fear
And no more bloodshed on the red frontier
And we shall live again
♪
But the wind took my train up into the chasms of the sky
And in the air hung a golden trumpet
Some warn of heaven and its narrow gate
The baby angels are armed and overweight
As they float above the turnstile and sing
You shall live again
You shall live again
This world is ours and all the stars
It's like the icing on a cake of death
And the only word that rhymes is breath
We shall live again