NEW ORIGINAL SONG: There Really Are Angels

[thatcrazycajun]

Watching some YouTube videos of lost astronauts moved me to write this:

THERE REALLY ARE ANGELS
Music and lyrics by Matt G. Leger

1. It was nineteen-sixty-seven, I was barely four years old
When Gus and Ed and Roger paid the price
They hadn't even launched as yet
It was just supposed to be a test
But it taught us to check every last thing twice

They hadn't been the first to die, they wouldn't be the last
In our land and in other lands as well
They knew the risks and still they went
They surely all were heaven-sent
To teach us courage even as they fell

Chorus:
   And if you're all out there somewhere, do you have the least idea
   How much your sacrifices meant to us?
   For our children and their children, too will keep your names alive
   Though you might not understand why all the fuss

   You bought our way out to the stars with your own lives, it's true
   And if we have a future, it is one you brought us to
   Up there in the heavens
   There really are angels
   And they're each and every blessed one of you

2.  The decades passed and I was now a struggling young man
When I heard the news that Challenger was gone
I watched that awful trail of white
On TV late into the night
And wondered how the hell we could go on

But even then I knew that they would not want us to quit
To let theirs be the last trip up for men
And though it took us two long years
Investigations, doubt and fears
We rode on fire into the sky again
Repeat Chorus

3. I never thought such horror could be ours yet one time more
When Columbia was almost to her home
But in the clear blue Texas sky
We watched another seven die
Their vessel turned to scrap, no more to roam

But now we plan to go again, out even farther still
Back to the Moon, to Mars and on beyond
We learn and build and hope and trust
Our angels watching over us
Will keep us from their fate as we go on
Repeat Chorus

Original music and lyrics ©2008 and beyond by Matt G. Leger. Recording, publication or performance for profit requires prior written consent and payment of royalties per ASCAP/BMI standards, payable as a donation to the National Space Society (www.nss.org). All other uses freely permitted so long as this notice is retained unaltered.

Comments

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

I can hear your voice singing this as a Paul Simon variation. I wrote such a thing in "The Power of the Pen". If you're ever in the same physical filksing with me, we should do this a duet with "Seven Down".

[hms42]

I look forward to hearing this the next time we cross paths. (Likely GaFilk unless you are attending OVFF.)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]