Crucifixion
By Phil Ochs
Em D And the night comes again to the circle studded sky G Bm The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie Am D G Em 'Till the universe explodes as a falling star is raised Am D G Em Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed Am D G Em But they all glow brighter from the brilliance of the blaze Am D Em With the speed of insanity, then he dies. In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars But to the silence of distance they are sworn Em C D So dance dance dance Em Teach us to be true C Come dance dance dance D Em 'Cause we love you Images of innocence charge him go on But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate And a blinding revelation is laid upon his plate That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate And God help the critic of the dawn. So he stands on the sea and shouts to the shore, But the louder that he screams the longer he's ignored For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged 'Till the giant is aware, someone's pulling at his leg, And someone is tapping at the door. To dance dance dance Teach us to be true Come dance dance dance 'Cause we love you Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads across the land The rewarding of his pain is the following of the man But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way Success is an enemy to the losers of the day In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray For blood is the language of the band. The Spanish bulls are beaten; the crowd is soon beguiled, The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style Excitement is estatic, passion places bets Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat And saliva is falling from their smiles So dance dance dance Teach us to be true Come dance dance dance 'Cause we love you Then this overflow of life is crushed into a liar The gentle soul is ripped apart and tossed into the fire. First a smile of rejection at the nearness of the night Truth becomes a tragedy limping from the light All the (canons|heavens) are horrified, they stagger from the sight As the cross is trembling with desire. They say they can't believe it, it's a sacreligious shame Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game? But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small. Tell me every detail, for I've got to know it all, And do you have a picture of the pain? So dance dance dance Teach us to be true Come dance dance dance 'Cause we love you Time takes her toll and the memory fades but his glory is broken, in the magic that he made. Reality is ruined; it's the freeing from the fear The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear As they wait for a new thrill parade. The eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined The child was created to the slaughterhouse he's led So good to be alive when the eulogy is read The climax of emotion, the worship of the dead And the cycle of sacrifice unwinds. So dance dance dance Teach us to be true Come dance dance dance 'Cause we love you And the night comes again to the circle studded sky The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie 'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze With the speed of insanity, then he died.
Notes:
Chords supplied by tonmaas@xs4all.nl (Ton Maas) and James Barnett.
This is one of Phil's two songs about the late John F. Kennedy (although in his intro on the There and Now - Live in Vancouver 1968 album he extended it to Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and to ``hero killing'' in general), the other song being That Was The President. Phil was also quoted (on 15-Dec-1965) as saying this about the song: "It's a song about Christ-killing, how all America and even, especially, New York loves to create heroes to moralize to them and then kill them violently, bloodily and dig the death so much, every detail of the death. It's a song about Jesus Christ. It's called The Crucifixion. It's a song about Kennedy. And maybe a song about Dylan." (In an interview a few months earlier, Phil expressed the belief that it would soon be too dangerous for Dylan to play out in public because he had become one of those heroes.)
Christian Bartolf says that this song ``has been translated into German language by Walter Mossmann: The "Gorleben-Song" became the hymn of the civil disobedience movement against plutonium industry beginning of the Eighties. There was an influence of non-violent resistance against nuclear industry: Wyhl (Germany) - Seabrook (New Hampshire) - Gorleben (Germany). Walter Mossmann started to sing his political folk songs in Wyhl (Germany) during the Seventies.
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Last modified 25 Dec 02 by trent
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