Class of '76

On my television stands a photo of my college friends
Taken at the very end of summer term that year
All arrayed in sober ranks, wearing our black gowns we'd stand
Looking at the coming world without a trace of fear
Now some of us are unemployed and all of us are scattered now
Things that we thought mattered then are so different today
And everything we shouted for is broken up and shattered now
Everyone dispersed and gone, like actors in a play

And every night I watch the news
And think where did we go wrong
There's three million on the dole
Blood's been spilled because of coal
And they say this rainy weather's going to last
And someone's been killed in Belfast

Little did we understand, that day that we stood rank on rank
What our future held for us, we didn't think that far
One became an archivist, another runs a city bank
One became a priest and dodges bullets in Armagh
One became a wide boy, but he always had a start on us
Others, they had bright ideas for businesses that died
And this girl in a T-shirt, asking what the crisis is
Found out too late about the lover standing at her side

And every night I watch the news
And think where did we go wrong
There's three million on the dole
Blood's been spilled because of coal
And they say this rainy weather's going to last
And someone's been killed in Belfast

Most went back to hometowns where they quickly fixed up mortgages
And furniture from Habitat, the gift of kids and wives
Me friend became a lawyer in a sleepy country practice
I see him on some weekends still, despite our changing lives
But we threw away our banners when we left those gracious halls
By the time we got to Woodstock, it was over you could say
And more and more I've come to think, despite our bright idealism
That all we had in common was, we stood there on that day

And every night I watch the news
And think where did we go wrong
There's three million on the dole
Blood's been spilled because of coal
And they say this rainy weather's going to last
And someone's been killed in Belfast



Credits
Writer(s): Steven Rudd
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

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