The fans were whirlin'
Like the blades of a 'copter
Liftin' into the skies above some foreign land
Soaked with the bodies of so many friends

Johnny waved, he was on his way home
He waved goodbye to his comrades in arms
And all the twisted things he'd seen
He waved goodbye

And the blades hit somethin'
Maybe just Fate but the blades hit
The 'copter went up in flames
And Johnny never went marchin' home
Johnny never went marchin' home

They took his name
And they carved it on a slab of marble
With several thousand other names
All the fallen idols
The apples of their mother's eye just another name

Meanwhile back on that burning shore
Johnny's comrades stood speechless
They looked with uh-uh-uh-uh-uh disbelievin' eyes
As those bits of metal and the embers
The embers of his eyes fanned out into the air, black dust flames

Oh Johnny, some day they'll make a movie about you
And in the makin' of that movie some mad apocalypse
It will become even stranger than the simple act
Just a boy goin' up, up, up, just a boy goin' up
In flames in the smoke, just another life, just another breath

And who'll remember, oh eternity now
As eternal as a sheet of marble
Eternal as a slab on a green hill
And your name
And all your fallen brothers

And all the ones not cut
All the ones remembered only in the hearts
A mother, a father, a brother, a sister
A lover, a son, a daughter
Shall not, shall not fade, shall not fade

Your ancestors salute you
And the Gods of your ancestors salute you
Havin', havin' been formed by the minds of your ancestors
The Gods of your ancestors salute you

Havin' been formed by your ancestors
The Gods of your ancestors salute you
They draw you in, they draw you through
They draw, they draw you through that golden door

Come on in boy, come in
We remember you, we conceived of you
We conceived of your breath
We conceived of the whole human race
And we conceived it to be a beautiful thing
Like a tulip bending in the wind

Sometimes it comes back to us
In the form of a handful of dust
Comes back in the form of a smitten child
Our raped daughters, ah the broken bones
Souls cleaved from hearts, they come back to us

And our hands are filled with their rotting tissues
But we turn not our backs, we press our lips
Into their cancer, into the dust, into the remains of each one
And that love is there and will greet you, will greet you
Come on in boy, it's eternal love

Well here, go ahead, run through that flame
Auh man, runnin' through your mind
You took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tail
And you swirled it around your head
And you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of it

And you knew that it would be your own
But you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it die
Because you know, you would feel your own
You would feel your own but you're remembered

You're remembered, you're remembered dead
You're remembered dead
You're remembered dead
We remember, we remember
We remember, everything, everything