CAPTAIN SKY

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Gregory Penderson was just a regular guy,
Nothing much different from him, you or I,
Wife with a kid, house with a mortgage,
Not making enough money to keep up with inflation,
World closing in--I'm sure you know the situation.
     Ah, but he learned how to fly
     And now they call him Captain Sky.


He went to bed one night, he was worried about money.
Got a little goodness and love from his Honey,
Slipped off to sleep, drifted to dreaming
The dream that he always was dreaming--
The wind, it was screaming
The earth, it was spinning below
     And he rose, and he goes
     Coming fast from night,
     Piercing a cloud between the mountaintops,
     Banking to the right.
     The rivers look like lightningbolts
     Reaching for the sun
     As he soars into daylight
     In godlike Flight.

          In my dreams I often fly,
          I understand the theory, 
          You're simply warping gravity
          And fall the way you wish
          And fall the way you wish
          If you wish to fall
          That is all.

He woke up on the ceiling, the world was upside-down,
Honey looking up at him with such a worried frown.
He looked around, yes, upside-down, it was he who was
And he understoood that he was warping gravity.
And he understood that he stood at a point of Destiny.
     For he understood the Vision That Opens Up The Sky:
     If he wanted to, he could fly.

And it took a lot of learning, but he could fly as fast as he could fall,
And he could carry his own weight--but nothing more at all. 
With a streamlined plastic suit to protect him from the wind
He could do about two hundred miles an hour,
Or land upon a dime, or perch upon a flower.
     But it was a family secret he could fly
     And that's why he's Captain Sky.

"Well, now I've got a skill," Greg said, "it's time to get a job.
But who to work for in this world of greedy corporate mobs?
But I've got to make a living, so I'll just see what I can get."
So he advertised in The Times and P.I.
For everyone to come and see the Flight of Captain Sky.
     And maybe someone there would like to hire
     Or even buy a man who can fly.

A sunny Sunday in Seattle, his public flight debute:
Mysterious and stalwart in his skin-tight plastic suit.
From some skyscraper stepstone he sailed in above the crowd,
Circled the Space Needle in impossible human flight:
A real-live super-hero dressed in blue and cloudy white.
     And everybody looked up and they cried:
     "O my, lookit that guy fly!"

Exxon really wanted him, Standard said it first,
NASA said they needed him, Hollywood even worse.
He got real good press, he was Seattle's Super Hero.
IBM and ITT were making offers hard to resist,
But it was some Federal Agents who said, "Come with us, we insist!"
     And they told him that he had to be a spy
     Or die, Captain Sky.

"Tell us your name and why," an Agent tried to know,
"We safeguard this country from freaks from above or from below, 
And we won't have wierdos flying around unless they're on our side
So you've got to work for us--we'll teach you how to fight."
But Captain sky just went upside-down and fell up out of sight. 
     And he used his middle finger to wave Bye-bye.
     "No way," said Captain Sky.

Well, he got a job in secret with a great big company
And they paid him pretty well, he made lots of money.
He worked the night shift delivering unmarked packages
And all he had to do was fly from town to town--
Avoiding anybody who was trying to shoot him down.
     It was pretty safe as long as he stayed high.
     Fly high, Captain Sky.

But pretty soon he figured out just what he was doing
And he saw he was not the only one this company was screwing.
When he challenged the bosses, they only lied,
He tried to quit and they made the money more--
He could finally get rich if he lived like a whore.
     "I'm really not a hero, just a guy
      Some guy who can fly."

          In my dreams I often fly,
          I understand the theory, 
          You're simply warping gravity
          And fall the way you wish
          And fall the way you wish
          If you wish to fall
          That is all.

So he went home to Honey and they locked themselves in bed,
"Greg, do not take that money, I will work instead!"
And so Captain Sky found himself on the run again.
Started an unlicensed and illegal air-rescue service,
But there were lots of traps for him and it made him kind of nervous.
     And now he's flying underground.
     Fly low, Captain Sky.

And then he found that anyone could do what he could do:
Honey learned it right away once he showed her how to.
And he started teaching others how to warp gravity away
And soon the sky was filled with people flying everywhere,
And Captain Sky just one among the crowd, but he didn't care
     He might never get rich but he could try
     To change the world as Captain Sky.

The governments of the world tried to suppress the warpaway technique,
But people learned it anyway, until there was no secret.
Revolution broke out everywhere, the economy collapsed,
War took on new magnitude, crime achieved new high,
Borders are unkeepable once everyone can fly.
     But eventually the changéd world was nigh
     And they elected Captain Sky.

3R

Monroe, Washington
April 28, 1981

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CHORDS

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A                            F
Gregory Penderson was just a regular guy,

A                           Bm
Nothing much different from him, you or I,

A                G
Wife with a kid, house with a mortgage,

    F#m                         A
Not making enough money to keep up with inflation,

Bm                             E
World closing in--I'm sure you know the situation.

     A                         E
     Ah, but he learned how to fly

                  Bm       G       A
     And now they call him Captain Sky.



   A                             F
He went to bed one night, he was worried about money.

A                         Bm
Got a little goodness and love from his Honey,

A                     G
Slipped off to sleep, drifted to dreaming

    F#m                      A
The dream that he always was dreaming--

    F            A
The wind, it was screaming

    F             A
The earth, it was spinning below

            G            A
     And he rose, and he goes

     D                A
     Coming fast from night,

     G                            A
     Piercing a cloud between the mountaintops,

     D              A
     Banking to the right.

         G                A
     The rivers look like lightningbolts

     G                Bm
     Reaching for the sun

                      E  G
     As he soars into daylight

                A
     In godlike Flight.


                Am
          In my dreams I often fly,

            G
          I understand the theory, 

                 F
          You're simply warping gravity

              C
          And fall the way you wish

              F
          And fall the way you wish

                 C
          If you wish to fall

          Am      G
          That is all.

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