Sunday Song Lyric:
Mission of Burma is back. The early 80s, Boston-based post-punk band has put out a few albums of late, and they played at Case Western last night. (Of course I was out of town and missed it.) I haven't heard much of their new stuff, but their 1981 album (EP actually), Signals, Calls and Marches has a permanent place in my collection.

If there's a Mission of Burma song people know, it's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" (though many are probably only familiar with the sanitized-for-MTV Moby version, "That's When I Realize It's Over.") It was the lead track on the original EP, but not on the reissues. Here's a taste of the lyrics:

Once I had my heroes
Once I had my dream
But all of that is changed now
They've turned things inside out
The truth is not that comfortable, no

And mother taught us patience
The virtues of restraint
And father taught us boundaries
Beyond which we must go
To find the secrets promised us, yeah

That's when I reach for my revolver
That's when it all gets blown away
That's when I reach for my revolver
The spirit fights to find its way
The full lyrics are here. And here are a live version, the original track put to Moby's video, and a live Moby performance. [For whatever reason, I couldn't find the video for the sanitized Moby version online.]

For indexes of prior Sunday Song Lyrics, see here, here, and here.

UPDATE: Since I hadn't done one of these in a while, I thought I'd repost my explanation:

I am under no illusion that all (any?) the lyrics I select are classic or profound. That's not the point. I select lyrics because they are topical, in the news, powerful, profound, silly, absurd, enjoyable, or just on my mind for whatever reason, and might be of interest to some readers or provoke an interesting discussion. If you like the SSL, keep reading, and send me suggestions from time to time. If not, ignore these posts and read something else.