Dave Pirner - Faces & Names lyrics

There was something in the air that day, like gunpowder or sulfur And soon a wild migration came from upstairs like a storm I was at a costume party and although nobody noticed I mingled there stark naked, all my emperor's clothes were torn When suddenly the sprinkler system ran the makeup down her dress I must confess I had forgotten who I went to meet there Something was not right right then And there I saw you five years later like someone I'd never seen before And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed Are the faces and the names So I thought I'd say hello but that building it was burning And you turned and ran away just like the vision I remember Right then I got run over by a local politician Who said that segregation would be good for education So there I was stark naked with a racist politician In about three feet of water in a building that was burning We looked to find the exit and he said he owned the building I was breathing in the suffocation, blowing out the air And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed Are the faces and the names Now I had knocked myself unconscious, at the time I'd felt like drowning When I came to I was rolling through emergency room doors And they left me in the waiting room with work-related head-wound victims Wondering what happened and still bleeding on the floor And sitting there my grade-school teacher stared at me and said, "What happened? "Son, you could have been someone, you could have been so much more" And I thought about that party and my fine fair-weathered friends And that burning building and those folks I'd never see again And my life flashed before me and exploded into flames Now I just sit back and laugh, 'cause the only thing that's changed Are the faces and the names