Another Age - Phil Ochs

There’s a man walking round the island with a snake cane

He picked it up in Thailand from a hurricane

And you know he’s not gonna go there

He’s been one time too long

Now all the gods are gone (Though the game is gone)

The younger boys are drowning in a shallow sea

The night belongs to snipers in palm trees

And their sabres flashed like lightning

In the charge of the last brigade

They must have been afraid

Soldiers have their sorrow

The wretched have their rage

Pray for the aged it’s the dawn of another age

Of another age

Of another age

Of another age

The blood running down the blackboard on a blank (?) screen (in a thin stream?)

The convicts shake their cages of a bad dream

And they’ll coach you in the classroom that it cannot happen here

But it has happened here

I remember nothing that I memorized (The cockroach cops are crawling on a

battle ground)

I got my education from a black eye (The shields are in the shadows,

it’s a college town)

And they’ll teach you law and order

If you dare to raise your hand

Spare the glove and spoil the man

Soldiers have their sorrow

The wretched have their rage

Pray for the aged

It’s the dawn of another age

Of another age

Of another age

Thomas Paine and Jesse James are old friends