The Next 20th Century

The nazis that we hired For our wedding band Played your anthem like I wasn’t there For the father/daughter dance From the boondocks of Egypt To the nosebleeds at Calvary Recite your history of oppression, babe While you are under me There’s no doubting the devotion my ancestors had for yours Now we’ve got all the love to pay for like a thousand different wars A square foot of empire Around the peep show slot I see an avatar of mercy With the same damn jeembles that I got The boss wants to be anonymous The talent wants to be seen We weren’t paying for your body, lord We were paying you to leave Now who will watch the chorus line stretching from Reno to Rome Listen, Cherry, I know you love me but say you love me ‘fore you go Val Kilmer had a wall length mirror just over there Well, I’m sure he’s someone else now But he was Batman when he lived here Maybe he’s Yankee Zulu Just waiting for the flood And maybe Mac the Conqueror With the severed head of love I’ve seen him wearing aviators and a black baseball hat Stalking airports ‘cross the bardo quiet as a wildcat The wheel is turning From night into day Everything’s in transition Everything must change But none of us here Will ever see the promised land None of us here will be there for Childhood’s end I see ya You student debtors In the watchtower overhead Searchin' for headlights in the driveway Crying “Dad, look what they did” Just look Even their romance made us masters and slaves And now things keep getting worse while staying so eerily the same Come build your burial grounds On our burial grounds But you won’t kill death that way I don’t know bout you But I’ll take the love songs And give you the future in exchange I don’t know ‘bout you But i’ll take the love songs If this century’s here to stay I don’t know ‘bout you But I’ll take the love songs And the great distance that they came