We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

One Life (A Story of the Great War)

from The Gears of Change by Escape the Clouds

/

about

Inspired by a visit to the battlefields of The Great War, and the true story of a particular soldier--Fernand Marche--who fought and died on "the line" at Verdun.

lyrics

Verse 1
His hands once worked a mine in the lowlands.
They now clutch the scarred stock of a loaded bolt-action.
Twenty-six year old eyes that have seen a hundred men die
Can’t blink away the horrors he’s seen on the line.

The artillery brackets the trenchlines around him.
Cries of gas and fire can’t pierce the ring of ears deafened.
He volunteered on a promise that it would all mean something
And still he clings to that hope even as the Earth’s trembling.

Chorus
So we stand!
(So we fall….)
For a nation that calls us to its defense.
(For the fortunes and hubris of prideful old men)
So we fight!
(So we die….)
To shield our families from the oncoming dark.
(For doddering, lying fools wasting our lives on their lark)

Verse 2
At 4pm, the guns cease their bombardment
And out of the smoke storm hordes of armed men.
With his fellows he sights and fires as true as he can.
Aiming to hold to the very last man.

Shrapnel and blood spatter the sandbags around him.
Flamethrowers leave bones and uniforms smoldering.
Fixed bayonets run through broken men’s hearts
As their line bends and cracks and crumbles apart.

Chorus

Verse 3
They need help but there’s no one coming.
The colonel in the rear must be warned what’s in the offing.
The soldier volunteers to carry a message in hand
Back across the hellscape of no man’s land.

He sets off at a run, soft hat pulled low.
The lip of the second trench seems a distant stone’s throw.
Bullets spray mud and whip past his ears.
But in his heart is a courage that stamps down his fear.

Chorus

Verse 4
He was found half-buried and shattered in a crater.
Arm upstretched, a desperate message in his fingers
They’ll never find the rest of his poor dear friends
All boys from a town whose best hopes met their ends.

One life or a dozen or a hundred meant nothing
To a war burning through such millions like kindling.
While a crumpled slip of paper was never received
His loss was heard clearly by his bereaved.

Soon tired empires collapsed and the guns grew subdued.
In front of his old mine his town raised a statue.
They remembered his valor but too soon forgot
The true reasons this great war had on this world been wrought.

credits

from The Gears of Change, released August 29, 2018
Written, produced, and performed by Mark Rossmore

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Escape the Clouds image

Escape the Clouds Fort Myers, Florida

Escape the Clouds crafts stories through both music and words, creating vivid, character-driven steampunk music. For more information about this and other work, please visit:

contact / help

Contact Escape the Clouds

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Escape the Clouds recommends:

If you like Escape the Clouds, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now