Sgt Pepper's Band

Lyrics: Joan Baez
Music: Joan Baez

Joan Baez sang this once with the Dead, on 12 December 1981. Thanks to Matt Schofield for help with the lyrics. This appears on most songlists as "Heroes Gone" but the real title is "Sgt Pepper's Band." It's written by Joan Baez but never released on an album.

I never knew you meant that much to me
Why did I light a candle when you died (note 1)
Find a picture of you walking in Central Park
With the iron woman by your side

That candle burned for twenty days
Most of my good friends came to mourn
And we talked about the good old days
Before my friends and I were born

Chorus
Now I think I understand
It was Sgt Pepper's Band
That put the sixties into song
Where have all the heroes gone

Lucy in the sky with the lads from Liverpool
Drop some acid, meet the Queen
Coming out of both eyes of the hurricane
You sang your music sweet and clean

Oh you may not want my poetry
I surely would not want your fame
You rose over the dawn of my early history
I'll pay you tribute all the same

[Chorus]

Where have they gone
Where have they gone
Where have they gone
Where have all the heroes gone

It was a diamond studded hard day's night
They tell me everyone was there
I must have heard you from my mother's arms
I must have thought somebody cared

And I live in the age of cosmic maniacs
One of them put a bullet in your side
New York City nineteen eighty
The day the sixties finally died

[Chorus]

Where have they gone
Where have they gone
Where have they gone
Where have all the heroes gone

Notes
(1) rarher oddly, the lyrics on Joan Baez's website have "Why did I pour a candle", which doesn't make sense



Further Information
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For details of every time played, see Grateful Sets

 


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