'39 (Live in Sheffield, 2005)

Okay, you don't expect comedy from me, do you?
(Yes! Yes!)
Well, you won't get it
Okay, um (Love you!)

You know, I have to say something
I get a very strange feeling about time
Comin' out here and sitting amongst all of you here
So... very privileged position to be here sitting where I am
Um, I can hardly believe it
It's... it's like you have to keep pinching yourself
It was almost nineteen years ago when
Queen last drew up the boards up here
In Sheffield
And uh, in some ways it seems like yesterday
Some ways it's a very long time
And I look around, I see a lot of wonderful, friendly faces
Thank you all for being here

And the amazing thing is
The amazing thing is some of you I do know
And some of you guys are looking - and you kinda look familiar
But actually, you know, you are probably not
Or... or even just born when the... when this last happened
Welcome to you all, we love ya!

Which brings me to the theme of this song
Which I'd like to sing for you
And I'd like you to sing with me if you're up for it
You wanna sing?
(Yeah!)

Okay, I'm just gonna tell you
This song is about time as well, it's about a
It's about a man who goes off in a silver spaceship
To discover new lands
Which he manages to do
But when he comes back, he
He feels like he's only a year older
But to the people back on Earth, his planet is a hundred years older
And uh... You wanna sing?
(Yeah!)
It goes like this!

In the year of '39
Assembled here the volunteers
In the days when lands were few
And the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen

And the night followed day
And the storytellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For a many lonely day
Sailed across the milky seas
Never looked back, never feared, never cried

Don't you- (hear my call?)
(Though you're many years away)
Don't you hear me calling you?
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew

In the year of '39
Came a ship in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news
Of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily weigh

For the Earth is old and grey
Little darlin' well away
But my love, this cannot be
Oh, so many years have gone
Though I'm older than a year
Your mother's eyes from your eyes cry to me

Don't you hear my call?
Though you're many years away
(Don't you hear me calling you?)
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew

Don't you hear my call?
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you?
All your letters in the sand
Cannot heal me like your hand
For my life still ahead, God bless all of you

Oh, thank you