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

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