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Nightmare at 20,000 ft. Lyrics
Welcome to hell!
Sweating on the top line
At the airline
Check-in not check out
Wish I could get the hell out
This is no joke
The thing could go up in smoke
Or plummet to the ground
As the G-force pulls us down
Flight! Fright! Get uptight!
Throw a seven in the clouds and
Out go yer lights
City to city! State to state!
Roasting coast to coast
In a megaton freight crate
Hurtle down the runway
Is it a one way trip to heaven
Or hell on wheels?
In a 747 I get a little freaky
When there's only air and
Steel beneath me
"Fasten your seatbelt
We hope you enjoy the ride."
CHORUS
Junk metal in the air!
It's a total nightmare
At 20,000 feet!
Are ready for a rough ride?
Tis could be suicide
Turbulance ahead
I think my lunch
Is on the uprise!
Far out! This dread ain't funky
My hair's on end
there's no blood left in me!
It's not the car of the bus
Or the train! It's the plane
When we hit top speed
It's always the same
Sweating red hot
But chilled to the bone
Side to side
Bouncing off the ozone
Tranquilise me! Hypnotise me!
Technofear haz paralyzed me
all around me people grinning
Laughing while my head is
Spinning
Shakin' like a leaf
From my head to my feet
Strapped to a seat
At 20,000 feet
Safer in the air
Than on the ground!
At the airline
Check-in not check out
Wish I could get the hell out
This is no joke
The thing could go up in smoke
Or plummet to the ground
As the G-force pulls us down
Throw a seven in the clouds and
Out go yer lights
City to city! State to state!
Roasting coast to coast
In a megaton freight crate
Is it a one way trip to heaven
Or hell on wheels?
In a 747 I get a little freaky
When there's only air and
Steel beneath me
We hope you enjoy the ride."
Junk metal in the air!
It's a total nightmare
At 20,000 feet!
Tis could be suicide
Turbulance ahead
I think my lunch
Is on the uprise!
Far out! This dread ain't funky
My hair's on end
there's no blood left in me!
It's not the car of the bus
Or the train! It's the plane
It's always the same
Sweating red hot
But chilled to the bone
Side to side
Bouncing off the ozone
Technofear haz paralyzed me
all around me people grinning
Laughing while my head is
Spinning
Shakin' like a leaf
From my head to my feet
Strapped to a seat
At 20,000 feet
Than on the ground!
Song Info
Submitted by
[inactive Account] On Apr 12, 2004
More Pop Will Eat Itself
Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Can U Dig It?
Def Con One
Inside You
Everything's Cool
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there is also a famous episode of The Twilight Zone called "Nightmare at 20,000 Ft." While the song is about a crippling fear of flying/a plane crash, the TZ episode (starring William Shatner) is about a man with anxiety problems who sees a gremlin-like creature on the wing of a plane, taking about the engine. He ends up breaking through the window and shooting the critter, which no one else is able to see, and is taken to a hospital after the plan lands. As the camer pans away, however, we seen that the wing was genuinely damaged by something...
Given that PWEI are big fans of TZ, it's highly likely that they purposefully titled the song this way.
The title is of course referencing the Twilight Zone episode of the same name.
I'm not sure if the song is about irrational fear of flying, or about the somewhat more rational fear of flying in the near future if John Major got his way with airline deregulation.
As it turned out, when deregulation happened in 1992, all the new fly-by-night airlines with lax safety and maintenance standards quickly went out of business and got bought out by the older low-cost airlines like Ryanair before they managed to kill lots of people, but who could predict that in 1990?