I've been walking wicked Slouching at newsstands Curled up in halftime Writing lousy poetry And a dead star was waking Shaking sleep from its throat With a fighter plane flypast And a dull battle hymn It was horrible Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of past greatness It was some old boy chit-chat Some gulf of progress A Pax Britannica Like shaking hands with a maniac I went down through the shipwrecks The bonfires of good ideas There was some pagan progress Some deeper mystery I couldn't seem to hold it I couldn't seem to see I've been looking in all the wrong places Well, it took him by the arm And it was beating time on his back Whispering the words in his ear And the old man sang Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of past greatness Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of greatness Life only comes in flashes of past greatness And the old man sang And the old man sang And the old man sang "Bury me in my shoes" And the old man sang "With my Sam Browne on In the corner of this field No guts, no glory, yeah, right kid?"