Bobryanmusic.com: The Tracks
Heroes
(Bob Ryan)
© 1983, 2007 by Bob Ryan / Published by Leaping Armadillo Music (ASCAP) / Written April, 1983; California
John Lennon was shot and people in the media fell all over themselves talking about this "sweet, gentle man of peace" and other such things.
Within a few years, the "Tell-all" biographies began to appear.. along with the magazine articles and the documentaries about "the real" John Lennon... the Lennon "nobody knew" or whatever the drill is.
Fame. A fleeting thing in an impermanent world.
When heroes die, they don't return.
Their urgent voices fade.
The victories of blood and toil and tears,
Like a brilliant blade,
Tarnish with the years.
When heroes die, the long winds rise
To sweep their steps away.
A tale of deeds that stunned a former age,
To a child today,
Dies upon the page.
And men will fight and kill and lie
To gain a moment in the eye
Of a world that lives to cry
When heroes die.
When heroes die, the flags fly low.
The strangers weep as one.
When heroes die they don't return again,
Leaving yet undone
All that might have been.
And men will fight and kill and lie
To gain a moment in the eye
Of a world that lives to cry
When heroes die.