The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime) Lyrics

I seen a hand, I seen a vision
It was reaching through the clouds, To risk a dream

A shadow cross the sky
And it crushed into the ground, Just like a beast

The old man's back again
The old man's back again

I seen a woman, standing in the snow
She was silent as she watched them take her man

Teardrops burned her cheeks
for she thought she'd heard, The shadow had left this land

The old man's back again
The old man's back again

The crowds just gathered, their faces turned away
And they queue all day like dragons of disgust

All the women whispering
Wondering just what these young hot-heads want of us
And entres vie he cries

with eyes that ring like chimes
His anti-worlds go spinning through his head
He burns them in his dreams
for half awake they may as well be dead

The old man's back again
I see he's back again

I see a soldier, He's standing in the rain
For him there's no old man to walk behind

Devoured by his pain
bewildered by the faces who pass him by

He'd like another name the one he's got's a curse
These people cried
Why can't they understand
His mother called him Ivan then she died

The old man's back again
The old man's back again
I can see him back again
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Cover art for The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime) lyrics by Scott Walker

Full title is The The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated To the Neo-Stalinist Regime) which tells you exactly who the Old Man is (Stalin for the historically challenged) and its subject matter - the brutal repression by the Czech/Soviet forces of Dubcek's "Prague Spring" liberalising government of 1968.

Great song.

Cover art for The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime) lyrics by Scott Walker

bassline is so bold it makes me feel strong just to listen to this son.