Reincarnation Blues

You'll be taught that I was caught in the crossfire And you'll have thought that I fought someone else But in truth I'd been turning a profit for the empire Before turning a gun on myself Over 7 years of bad luck I lost any superstition But you'll never find any kind of proof And my obituary read that I ran out of ammunition It couldn't be much further from the truth I was shot down in the Indian Ocean In the summer of 1942 I felt no pain or shred of emotion And the wind blew me right back to you They say my princess was found in the water In the long, cold winter of '24 And now suddenly it seemed she was nobody's daughter I guess somebody settled a score If you look for the truth in the shadiest places You might find something on a dusty shelf While you might know the names and you might know the faces The rest, you'll have to find out for yourself If you find this I'll never know I was dead and buried a long time ago I'm burning matches and trying to show You'll be a part of this long before you know Well I've been cutthroat and full of ambition I've been washed up and driven insane I've been through heartache and self-demolition And been so lost I don't know my own name I had a price on my head from some corrupt politician And I was punched out and lying on the floor When they brokered the deal there was only one condition I couldn't go back to where I was before If you find this I'll never know I was dead and buried a long time ago I'm burning matches and trying to show You'll be a part of this long before you know It's not a dream, it's more a premonition I'm not so naive I think I can break the chain It's a cycle of endless repetition It won't be long now before it all starts again...