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Harold Land Lyrics
Harold Land with a wave of his hand,
said goodbye to all that,
He paid his bills, stopped the Milk, and then put on his hat,
He tried to say his last farewells as quickly as he could,
Promising that he would return, but doubted that he would,
doubted that he would.
Now he's marching soldiers in the rain
as on to war they rode.
A long thin line of human mind,
damnation as their load!
In the mud in coldness dark he'd shiver out his fear,
What disappointing sights he'd seen instead of one's so dear
instead of one's so dear
Going home, He's going home to the land he loved so well,
Going home, he fought for two whole years he never fell,
He's going home, He's going home.
Harold Land with a wave of his hand stood sadly on the stage,
Clutching red ribbons from a badge but he didn't look his age,
only two years had passed between his leaving home and back,
He had lost his love and youth while leading the attack
Leading the attack
In conversation it could be said,
Well after war your heart is dead,
Well it's not hard to understand,
There is no heart in Harold Land.
said goodbye to all that,
He paid his bills, stopped the Milk, and then put on his hat,
He tried to say his last farewells as quickly as he could,
Promising that he would return, but doubted that he would,
doubted that he would.
as on to war they rode.
A long thin line of human mind,
damnation as their load!
In the mud in coldness dark he'd shiver out his fear,
What disappointing sights he'd seen instead of one's so dear
instead of one's so dear
Going home, he fought for two whole years he never fell,
He's going home, He's going home.
Harold Land with a wave of his hand stood sadly on the stage,
Clutching red ribbons from a badge but he didn't look his age,
only two years had passed between his leaving home and back,
He had lost his love and youth while leading the attack
Leading the attack
Well after war your heart is dead,
Well it's not hard to understand,
There is no heart in Harold Land.
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Just a basic anti-war song, but why Harold Land? He's an old jazz sax player. But that doesn't make any less sense than most Jon Anderson songs.
The other question is: What does "stopped the milk" mean? No one under 50 will understand that people used to get home delivery of milk. Amazingly, this was in the pre-Amazon era. You had to "stop the milk" if you were going to be away from home, as Harold Land was. Now you know.
@GeraldNeily The name/word Harold comes from Proto-Germanic, Old English and Old Norse origins meaning Military-Power or Army-Ruler as in King Harold Godwinson who was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The phrase 'Goodbye To All That' refers to the book by Robert Graves who was a young officer during WW1 and tells of his experiences of being gassed and hospitalised and eventually left cynical and weakened both physically and mentally after the war. Also the name Harold was a very ordinary yet popular name for a boy and still is. Harold Land is a cynical adjective for Great...
@GeraldNeily The name/word Harold comes from Proto-Germanic, Old English and Old Norse origins meaning Military-Power or Army-Ruler as in King Harold Godwinson who was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The phrase 'Goodbye To All That' refers to the book by Robert Graves who was a young officer during WW1 and tells of his experiences of being gassed and hospitalised and eventually left cynical and weakened both physically and mentally after the war. Also the name Harold was a very ordinary yet popular name for a boy and still is. Harold Land is a cynical adjective for Great Britain. Nothing to do with an old jazz sax player.
The phrase 'Goodbye To All That' must refer to the book by Robert Graves who was a young officer during WW1.
[Edit: No reason]
@richinterface Apologies, Graves was not gassed but hit in the back by artillery shrapnel.
@richinterface Apologies, Graves was not gassed but hit in the back by artillery shrapnel.