All My Heroes Are Dead

Come lovers, come loners, remember yourselves
As lusty tempestuous fools
When your dream was to conquer an ocean
From your small secretarial pools

When you stood at the gulf of unknowing
When you saw the great tundra of time
And you cried for the winds to come blowing

And you called a monsoon from the tides of the moon
'cause the roads were all dusty and dry

Come lame dancing lonely tonight
When what should appear in the distance
Blown hither and yon it's calamity john
And hes coming to sweep you away---aye i aye ayy

He'll tear through the homefront, he'll lift you up laughing
He'll blow every signpost away
As the weather report says high drama
With a five percent chance that he'll stay
Now the floor starts to rock and the roof floats
And your friends say he's bad for your health
And they've warmed you about him on talk shows

So you told him to pack, hit the road, don't come back
And he says hey "don't flatter yourself" ....and you say.....

I am closing my door to the storm
I am saving myself from its freedom
I have put the chain on, oh calamity john
I don't want you to dance me away---aye i aye ayy

So its seven months later you've bolted your hair back
You're almost immune to the moon
And at parties you stay in the kitchen
Common sense with a big wooden spoon
All at once you can feel the storm coming
As you burst out into the old refrain
To the sound of america drumming

Call it pain, call it art, call it open your heart
Let it go let it fly, let it rain(oh yeah)

He smiles and the clouds turn to black
With the wind through the flowers come blowing
The warning bell's on, "what's your name, oh it's john",
That's such an unusual name---aye i aye ayy

Words and music by dar williams

My dad's a miracle and so's my mom.
They fly over the blue.
They finish their dinner and then they take one another's hand.
And off they go to find a broader point of view.
For it's a give and take beyond the ordinary.
What with all the cats and kid's that they've loved.
And they will not be alone.

words and music by dar williams

The blue it speaks so full
It's like the beauty one can barely stand
Or too much things dropped in your hand
And there's a green like the peace
In your heart sometimes
Printed underneath the sheets of ashy snow
And there's a blue like where the urban angels go, very bright
Now the calder mobile tips a biomorphic sphere
Then it swings its dangling pieces
Round to other paintings here

Your behavior is so male
It's like you can't explain yourself to me
I think i'll ask renoir to tea
For his flowers are as real as they are all the time
And the sunlight sets the furniture aglow
It's a pleasant time as far as people go, how far do they go?
Well his roses are perfect and his words have no wings
I know what he can give me and i like to know these things

I met her at the funeral
She said i don't know what he meant to me
I just know he affected me
An effect not unlike his art,
I believe

The service starts and we are in the know
He had so much to say but more to show, and ain't that true of life?
So we weep for a person who lived at great cost
Yet we barely knew his powers till we sensed that we had lost

A friend and i in a museum room
She says, "look at mark rothko's side
Did you know about his suicide?
Some folks were born with a foot in the grave, but not me, of course"
And she smiles as if to say we're in the know
Then she names a coffee place where we can go, uptown
Now the painting is desperate, but the crowds wash away
In a crowd of kind pedestrians who've seen enough today

You gotta admit life magazine made 1968 look great,
My father said it sucked, everybody died.
All the troops you couldn't save, no one knew how to be brave,
He said sometimes you were afraid to turn your radio on.
It was enough to make you quit that peacenick scene.
Well i heard about leaders, yeah i hear they're no longer around
Cause peace was abandoned, and bravery hanged in his town.
And they passed down a sentence
For building on the beauty of some dream.

All my heroes are dead, i got them in my head, saying
Never again, never a war, no more fighting.
So i'll stay true to them, and they'll come home again,
I'll carry the light, follow the dream, i'll remember.

The '68 convention was a singing the times they are a-changing,
Well i guess they a-changed back.
Oh i miss those peaceful folk, love and humor when they spoke, hey
Phil ochs you still sound great, should've stuck around to hear it.

They say that compact disc makes songs come true.
But phil i never expected that i'd miss you like a friend,
Cause i never expected that we would be marching again.
And the soldiers of peace would tumble from this life as in a war.

All my heroes are dead, and all the books i read,
Said "this is greed, this is wrong, fight your war at home".
So i'll stay true to them, and they'll come home again,
I'll carry the light, follow the dream, i'll remember.

So back to the present passion, romance, love, or simply put a lack thereof.
Shall we go on?
I don't take it personally, it's our post-modern history,
You know since nixon was impeached it's just been hard to commit,
So we cast our allegance left and right.
But i always believed that our souls would come through.
So i never expected that you'd take her home with you.
And i never detected, how hardened and not sorry you could be.
Don't you know?

All our heroes are dead, we got ourselves instead.
And oh my friend, all your lies, they won't do you.
You gotta stay true to them, and they'll come home again,
I miss them too, i miss them too, you know i miss them
More than i love you.