Silver Screen Stories: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

 

 

 

Another year, another October. I started this blog fourteen years ago, back in October of 2012. October and Halloween season hold a lot of weight and meaning for me personally, and for this blog directly. And in all those years, I've talked about a lot of my favorite actors and characters, figures that were significant to my formative childhood years, that always stayed with me as I grew up. But one such figure I've yet to really touch on, is one of the funniest, and dearest to my heart, at least in the realm of comedy. And that figure is none other than the great Mr. Don Knotts.

I've been over, many times in many ways, what a strange and often difficult childhood I had. It was a mixed bag in the most extreme ways. My grandmother was a complicated and very damaged person, very flawed with a lot of issues, issues I personally suffered because of, far too often growing up. But she could also be a lot of fun. It's actually very strange to me, and more than a little fucked up, that for someone who genuinely mistreated, even abused me as she was raising me, I find myself now squarely on the steps of "Middle Age", as pretty much the sole steward of her memory, good and bad, out of literally anyone left on the planet. And while she could be terrifying and horrible to be around, she could also be a real goofball, and sometimes hilarious. She loved humor and comedy, had a very twisted sense of humor herself, and had no qualms about laughing at crude fart jokes, as much as she did clever sight gags or word play.

As such, I grew up with a lot of comedy in my life. From the likes of Bill Cosby (she even owned one of his standup shows on vinyl record), to Red Skelton, or Bob Hope, or Jerry Lewis, or Johnny Carson, or George Burns. From movies stars like Whoopi Goldberg, to Steve Martin, to John Candy, or Gene Wilder, or even my beloved Leslie Nielsen. She loved TV shows like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Laugh In, Hee-Haw, The Smothers Brothers, The Golden Girls, Mama's Family, and many more. But one of those I remember seeing reruns of as a kid, was The Andy Griffith Show, and in that show, the character that stood out the most to me, to a lot of people it seems, was Don Knotts. 

Icons.

Not only was Andy Griffith a genuinely funny classic sitcom, but it was one that I genuinely looked forward to seeing reruns of on TV as a kid. Don Knotts especially, as his goofball deputy character Barney Fife, often stole the show. He got famous, and in fact earned his role AS Barney Fife, due to his schtick of being "The World's Most Nervous Man". And that was Barney Fife to a "T". Dead serious about the law, but also a bit of a coward, and always VERY high strung and easily rattled. That character, and his antics, were so funny, and so popular, that by the mid-60s, while he would return once in awhile for a special appearance, he actually got written off the show, said to be moving up in his police career and moving to the big city. That was so he could leave the show, to accept a contract to do movies, in which he would be the star. And boy, as much as I'm sure fans of that show were sad to see him leave, I personally am very glad he made the choice he did.

A childhood favorite.

Leslie Nielsen, playing the straight man.

As much as I love Barney Fife, the movies Don Knotts would make in the mid-to-late 60s were of far greater import and interest to kid me. The first Knotts film I remember seeing on TV, at a very young age, perhaps even before I ever saw an episode of Andy Griffith, was 1964's The Incredible Mr. Limpet. One of the earliest, and certainly earliest non-Disney examples of mixing live action with animation, Mr. Limpet saw Knotts as a brow-beaten, day dreamer husband, who was obsessed with fish and the sea, but was too frail and nervous to ever do more than own a fish tank. He wishes he was a fish, and boom, wouldn't you know it, he turned into Don Knotts in fish form, glasses and all (though he losses those glasses, which becomes a plot point, because he still has awful vision, even as a talking fish).  

Much like Disney's Pete's Dragon,  I was absolutely enthralled with his adventures as a fish, and it was a movie that really stuck with me as I got older. Mr. Limpet may well have even been one of the first "super heroes" I adored, as in the story he aids America during WWII against those dastardly Nazis, utilizing his super-sonic fish yell, or whatever it was he had. 

Another great Knotts flick that I saw at a young age, though later than Limpet, was The Reluctant Astronaut, from 1967. Nervous Don Knotts, who dreams of space but finds himself too scared and frail to try out for NASA, winds up stumbling his way into being a "civilian astronaut", so that America can beat those damn Russians to the punch in sending a civilian into space. As you would expect, hilarity ensues, as Knotts is of course a total klutz and goof, so him in space with zero gravity are not a good combo. It's also neat, looking at it retroactively, to see Leslie Nielsen having a prominent role as the straight man to Knotts' doofus, a straight-laced and handsome hero astronaut, who has to help Knotts prepare for his trip to space. I honestly don't remember, whether I first saw Nielsen in this, in my beloved seminal sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet, or the comedy classic Airplane. But there's a very good chance my first ever exposure to Leslie Nielsen, one of my favorite people to ever exist, was in a Don Knotts (ditto) picture. 

An absolute masterpiece of comedy.

But the movie I'm actually here to talk about, and the one, out of a slew of funny Knotts movies (including other gems like The Shakiest Gun in the West and The Private Eyes), was 1966's The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. It is easily his funniest movie, and that's saying something, but it might also be the overall best written and directed. It would seem audiences of the era agreed with me, as it was his most financially successful film. 

Now, outside of Mr. Limpet, I think this was the first Knotts movie I ever saw, and either way, as a kid, while I certainly laughed at the funny parts, I'm not sure I fully understood what "comedy" and "horror" were. I just knew when something made me laugh, and when something made me scared. And at a young age, taking everything at face value, this movie did both. Keep in mind that to a child's mind, I took something like Plan 9 From Outer Space, a very cheesy and poorly acted/written science fiction film, dead serious. As such, while Knotts' usual comedy antics likely had me howling, when it came to the spooky old haunted house central to the story, it still managed to scare me a bit too. And honestly, while you don't understand or can even process everything you're seeing, this is precisely why there are movies I missed out on seeing as a kid, that I wish I had. Because when you experience things as a child, before you're grown up and jaded, everything is so much bigger, more raw, and more powerful. 

The staff of the Rachel Courier Express.

The Ladies.

Living in small town Rachel, Kansas, working as a type-setter who dreams of becoming a big shot journalist, Knotts plays the affable but, naturally, nervous and timid Luther Heggs. Luther lives in a boarding home, populated by not only his obnoxious co-worker Ollie, but three very opinionated and nosy old ladies, as well. He works for the local small-time newspaper, whose entire staff consists of he, journalist Ollie Weaver, owner/editor George Beckett (played by Dick Sargent, famous for playing the second Darrin in Bewitched), and Irish janitor Kelsey. 

As the story starts, it's coming up on the 20th anniversary of an infamous murder/suicide at the old Simmons House, a huge deal to a small town. Told to provide "filler" for tomorrow's paper, Kelsey prompts Luther to instead write his own little piece about the event. This is such a hit with the townspeople, that Mr. Beckett wants a follow-up piece, this time involving someone staying in the "haunted" mansion overnight, that person being Luther. And with that kind of classic set-up, it's off the the races!

The haunted organ.

The paranormal?

Now one thing about "Mr. Chicken", is that he's got a little bit of Marty McFly in him, meaning that while he's a naturally nervous and shy coward, he can also pretty easily be provoked into doing things he wouldn't otherwise dream of doing, if you say he's too scared to do it. Which is precisely what Ollie does, and this prompts Luther, who already gets antagonized by Ollie as it is, to go through with the ludicrous assignment. So go Luther does, taking only a rolled-up sleeping bag and a borrowed flashlight. Ollie even shows up, backhandedly offering to go in with him, but Luther flatly refuses, and faces the daunting challenge all by his lonesome. 

There's a local legend, you see, connected to the murder/suicide of old Mr. Simmons and his beautiful young wife. It's said that after he allegedly killed her, with a pair of gardening sheers, that he ran up into the organ room in the tower of the old house, and played the organ like a madman, before leaping to his own death. So every year since, so it's claimed, at the stroke of midnight on the anniversary of the tragedy, you can still hear the pipe organ play. And it just so happens, during Luther's fateful visit, that not only does he seemingly discover a secret stairway, up to the old organ, but when he reluctantly goes snooping up there, the organ does indeed start to play, seemingly all on its own, the blood stains still on the keys. This causes him to freak out and run, and when he gets back downstairs, he encounters the painting of Mrs. Simmons pictured above, freshly stabbed with sheers, and dripping blood!

All of this is too much for poor Luther to take, and he passes out. But the next day, while feebly trying to recount his tale, George and Ollie manage to craft one hell of an article of his ordeal, supposedly in his own words. 

Mr. Nicholas Simmons

Miss Alma Parker

Now there are two major players I have yet to introduce, one being the love interest, and one being the antagonist. The latter, pictured in color, is Nicholas Simmons, the nephew of the deceased, and the only surviving heir to the Simmons' fortune. He's back in town after twenty years, because he wants to bulldoze the old mansion to the ground, and sell the land off. In fact he seems fervently determined to do so. The other, is the pretty young Alma Parker, a nice local girl who is the metaphorical "apple" of Luther's eye, but who also seems to spend a curious amount of time hanging around jerk-ass Ollie Weaver. 

For Alma's part, Luther adores her, and tries his best to work up the courage to talk to her. And his newfound fame, due to this Simmons House business, gives him a bit of courage to try and get to know her better, since now he's a "somebody". And she genuinely seems to like him in return, though at first of course, seeing her with Ollie, it's easy to think that it's the usual "nice guy finishes last" scenario, where she likes him, but "not THAT way". And for Simmons' part? Well, he becomes furious over the newspaper article, dredging up the memory of that horrible night, which also obstructs his demolition plans, so he sues Luther and the newspaper, if they refuse to publicly admit his experience was purely fictional. Which in an admirable moment for Mr. Beckett, he stands behind Luther and does just that. 

The court case.

That's more than the basic setup for the plot, but as for the film itself, I genuinely consider it an absolute classic, and a masterpiece of comedy. It has all of the integral elements: a likeable protagonist, a compelling conflict, and plenty of moments for hilarious hijinks. Don Knotts, naturally, steals the show, as it IS his show, he's the reason to watch. But he is supported brilliantly by some very snappy and clever dialogue, a tight script, smooth pacing, some wonderful sets (especially the old Simmons House, which is a character unto itself), and even a quaint, catchy score. The town is populated by quirky, memorable characters, such as the eccentric, occultist banker's wife and her crew of "spiritualists", or the unseen man-in-the-crowd who keeps calling out "Atta Boy Luther!". The entire film, as far as this man is concerned, is just *Chef's Kiss*.

It can definitely, and probably correctly, be claimed that when it came to comedy, the 1960s belonged squarely to Jerry Lewis. Yet another whose films I grew up watching, Lewis' hits like Who's Minding the Store, The Disorderly Orderly, and most famously The Nutty Professor, certainly made him the king of the 60s. But I think there is also a very strong argument, that while his window as a top-billed star only lasted a few years in the mid-to-late 60s (mainly), that Don Knotts was, at least for awhile, #2. 

The Simmons House

Now I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, so if you've never seen it and are curious to know how it all turns out, by all means, do yourself a favor, and go and watch this treasure! For me, I watch it every year, and not just around Halloween time. It's one of those rare films, where some years, I watch it multiple times. It's a very rare case, in very select company, of a movie that I don't necessarily have to be in a specific "mood" for, and can put on and watch, in part of or in full, just about any old time. It really is a perfect little film, a perfect combination of its parts. It possesses that small-town charm and innocence that made Mayberry from Andy Griffith so watchable. But it also has a madcap nature, clearly focused on Knotts, that turns his act and his antics up to 11. Plus it has that great, and oddly cozy, haunted house/fall atmosphere to it.

I don't mind saying that it is one of those rarities that is a "comfort film" to me, and I am absolutely biased in my love of it. But that doesn't alter the fact that it's also a legitimately great movie, one of the very best comedies, I think, of the classic era (30s-60s), So if you've never seen it, or even if you have, make sure to add The Ghost and Mr. Chicken to your Halloween rotation this year. And hell, if you have extra time, toss in 1980's The Private Eyes, as well, another spook show mystery, and one of his great teamings with fellow comedian Tim Conway! 

Whatever you do, make sure and have a fun and Happy Halloween! 

Don Knotts 1924-2006

Classic Songs: The Prophet's Song

 

 

It's been some time since I've done one of these, so I feel like it's high time to deep dive into another of my favorite songs. Previously, I've covered the likes of Kansas' "Dust in the Wind", Metallica's  "Unforgiven", and Blue Oyster Cult's "I Love The Night". All three are ballads, in their own fashion, but each are very different songs. For its own part, the song I'm here to talk about today, I'm not even 100% certain that it's my favorite Queen song. At the very least, it has stiff competition from songs I knew and loved for much longer, such as "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "Save Me". But the band Queen is tied very closely to my early childhood. 

 

 

Peak 80s Technology

 

 

The earliest artists I remember liking as a VERY small child, were 80s pop stars the likes of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, specifically songs like "Bad" and "Part Time Lover". I was also obsessed with Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" at one point, as well as The Beach Boys' "I Get Around", which was about the rockin'-est song I'd ever heard when I was little. Around age 4 or 5, I used to listen to my grandmother's Walter Murphy record, which I played a ton on my little Fisher Price Big Bird Phonograph, seen above. I was very specifically mesmerized by his hit song "A Fifth of Beethoven", which is an awesome disco reworking of Beethoven's infamous Fifth Symphony (you know, the one that goes da da da DUNNNNN). For some reason, there was even a period during my Kindergarten year where I REALLY liked George Straits' "All My Exes Live in Texas", even though I had no idea what he was talking about (and I'm pretty sure I thought for years that it was actually by Randy Travis).  

 

 

Childhood terror, and wonder.

 

The back cover art.

It was in that same Kindergarten year, around 1987, that I also started borrowing some of my mother's records as well. I was raised by my grandmother, her own mother, but my mother lived with us on and off again throughout my childhood, until about 1990, at which point she lived with us permanently until my grandmother died from cancer in autumn 1995. The record I listened to the most, was her copy of Queen's "News of the World" album. Their 1977 mega-hit, thrilled me with the songs "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", but almost more than that, I would just stare and marvel at the album artwork shown above. It is a painting by science fiction artist Frank Kelly Freas, who agreed to alter the original work, to show the four band members being held (and dropped) "dead", by this giant intelligent robot. The inference of the painting, which I'm sure I didn't fully understand at 5/6 years old, is that this giant robot invaded a Queen concert, and grabbed the band with its enormous, harsh metal hands, unintentionally crushing and killing them. One of the cool things about vinyl records, is that they often came packaged with two "folds", one to hold the record, and one that often held a lyrics sheet. And the inner unfolding "gate", often held additional artwork, such as was the case with "News of the World". The inner artwork was just as mesmerizing to me as the front and back covers, as it showed the robot reaching in through the crashed dome ceiling of the concert venue, trying to grab more fleeing concert-goers. 

To little kid me, it was both terrifying and endlessly fascinating. I was horrified by the dead people, and the blood dripping from the robot's fingers. But I also wondered who the dead men were, or the people fleeing in the gate artwork. I also wondered about the robot itself, why it was giant, who built it, why it grabbed the people, and I'm sure on some level I even registered how the painting gave this machine a confused, mournful expression, incapable of truly grasping what it had just done. It was certainly a weird and interesting choice by the band for album art, and it is also certainly one of the most iconic and memorable album covers in popular music history. It was also the only true example of such full blown, elaborate "rock album art" that Queen themselves ever used. 

 

 

The ominous inner gate art.

A bit later in my young life, once I had my own cassette tape player, and eventually my own Walkman player, I would borrow some of my mother's tapes as well. The two I remember borrowing the most, were Alan Parson's Project's "Stereotomy" (great obscure album, by the way), and some kind of Queen Greatest Hits collection. That collection rocked, because not only did it have the two hits I loved already in Rock You and Champions, but it had such new treasures as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Another One Bites The Dust", "Killer Queen", "Bicycle Race", "Somebody to Love", and "Seven Seas of Rhye", among others. Even though I didn't own that Queen tape myself, I surely listened to it a LOT, almost as much as I listened to the few tapes I actually owned myself. Those included such eclectic gems as a collection of California Raisins songs, a collection of Alvin & the Chipmunks songs, two ZZ Top albums ("Afterburner" and the lesser "Recycler"), and the last addition while my grandmother was still alive, Ace of Base's "The Sign". 

I had a very odd, eclectic taste in music as a kid, anyway, partly shaped by what my mother or grandmother had available of their own for me to listen to, but also constrained by what was actually available for me to experience on radio or VH1/MTV, or whatever I was (or wasn't) allowed to listen to. For example, I may have already recounted in a previous article how, upon first buying me my own tape player around age 7, my grandmother took me to the recently opened Walmart in town, and let me pick out a tape to play on it. For whatever reason, I randomly chose Alice Cooper's "Trash", which contained the hit song "Poison". It's odd that she didn't seem to have any previous knowledge of Alice Cooper or his reputation among fearful, pearl-clutching conservative parents. But upon me playing the album in the car, she very shortly took me back to Walmart, to pick out a different record. I was attracted to ZZ Top's "Afterburner" because it had cool cover art of a car flying in space, and she even asked some random young man if that album was "okay for kids", and he said yeah. Funny thing is, while I didn't pick up on any of it at a young age, that album had songs that were lyrically "just as bad" as Cooper's, with such masterpieces as "Sleeping Bag" and "Woke Up With Wood". 

I'm sure if I had been able to experience more heavy metal and such as a child, I would have loved it. I did actually have a brief phase when I first got my Walkman, where I would listen to a local rock and metal station I had discovered, but while I enjoyed some of what I heard, I don't remember any of it REALLY grabbing me, and I eventually shifted to mostly listening to some "Oldies" station, and later a Christian music station. I liked various rock, pop, even rap songs I was able to hear on VH1 or MTV, though my MTV viewing mostly got done between the ages of 10-13, on the sly so I didn't get caught, once I had my own TV in my own room. The majority of what I listened to on my own, though, was my few tapes, oldies and the Christian station, during my pre-teen years. But thanks to my mother, I was exposed to Queen very early in life, and they became an ingrained part of my makeup and consciousness. It's funny, because I clearly remember her mentioning Metallica as a band she liked when I was little, but my grandmother did not want me listening to "music like that" (if she even really knew what Metallica was). My mother had MANY faults and issues, and I didn't always get along with her very well, as a kid or a teen, but outside of her once playing a Meatloaf tape SO often that I destroyed it as an angry, spiteful teen, to her credit she liked some pretty cool bands, and thanks to her, I at least knew some Queen music growing up.   

A classic album, displaying Queen's classic band "emblem".

Unlike the three previous bands whose songs I've covered in this sub-series, Kansas, Metallica and Blue Oyster Cult, who outside of hearing the awesome song "Godzilla" in TNT's Monstervision, and perhaps hearing "Don't Fear the Reaper" in passing at some point, I didn't truly discover and get into until my teens, Queen's music was a part of my life from a much younger age. However, the song I'm here today to talk about, I am fairly certain I didn't actually discover until I was into my 20s. That's due to the fact that I wasn't really able, thanks to the internet, to finally do a deeper dive into Queen's entire catalogue, until then. But regardless of when in life I discovered it, from the very first time I heard "The Prophet's Song", I was hooked. 

This song is similar in tone, heavy use of fantasy style imagery, and just being an epic 1970s prog rock masterpiece, as one of my favorite Kansas songs, "The Pinnacle". another of my favorite songs that I'll have to give its own article someday. Written by Brian May, who is not only my favorite guitarist of all time, but also one of my favorite songwriters, it is arguably the most epic song Queen ever crafted. Yes, even moreso than Bohemian Rhapsody (from the same album). Their early albums featured a wide range of diverse musical sounds, but they definitely dipped their toes into elaborate "prog rock",  most especially with several songs based on Freddie Mercury's own original fantasy ideas. But for this song, Brian May had a dream of a great flood washing everything away, and that served as the main inspiration. Lyrically, it is at least loosely based on the biblical tale of Noah and his Ark, but it is also very dark, and equally features bombastic, fantasy-tinged themes. 

 

 

One of many haunting works by the great Gustav Dore.

 

 

The song is actually one of a handful of Queen's forays into the "heavy metal" sound, as well, and certainly outside of Black Sabbath, features one of the earliest examples of partial "drop tuning", as May down-tuned his E2 string to D2, apparently to give the song a "moodier" aesthetic. It also happens to be the longest song (with lyrics) that Queen ever wrote, clocking in at nearly eight and a half minutes. It begins (and ends) with a haunting windscape sound, and gentle acoustic guitars, accompanied by Mercury's mournful tones. But then it very quickly escalates into its more present "epic" sound. And then escalates further, to a fairly heavy, riff-driven chorus. You could even rightly say that the verses and choruses rise and fall, like the waves of a great flood. 

 Now, the only flaw in what I would consider an otherwise perfect song, a masterpiece, is an interlude section that starts about three and a half minutes in, which entirely consists of multi-layered vocals, largely repeating the same few lines. On the one hand it gives a trippy, haunting, "calm within the storm" type of effect. But on the other hand, even as much as I adore this song, it admittedly just goes on far too long, for roughly two minutes and fifteen seconds or more. 

 

 

 

Brian May, and his infamous "Red Special" custom guitar.

 

 

The reason that Brian May is my overall favorite guitarist of all time, for one thing is because he's an excellent songwriter. Queen songs to his credit include "The Prophet's Song", "Killer Queen", "Keep Yourself Alive", "It's Late", "We Will Rock You", the bittersweet folk ballad "'39" and the amazing Highlander song "Who Wants to Live Forever".  But beyond that, he also has the smoothest, most soulful and beautiful guitar tone I've ever heard. Part of that is due to his famous "Red Special" custom guitar, which his father helped him make, and he played and recorded with almost exclusively. But it was also just his own unique playing style, the way he approached playing lead guitar, with smooth, drawn out notes, almost sounding like classical violin or cello. 

And in a genre of music rife with extraneous, posturing guitar solos that often have nothing at all to do with the rest of the music in their given song, just a guitarist engaging in what I call "musical masturbation", Brian May stood apart. His solos and lead work almost always fit well within the context of the rest of his songs, and they rarely ever sounded like a bunch of wanking noodling, but rather were often full of emotion, melody, and in an odd instrumental way, were almost thoughtful. In fact, one of my other favorite bands, the German metal band Blind Guardian, whose lead guitarist Andre Olbrich is another of my favorite guitarists, his own playing style and lead work was heavily inspired by Brian May and Queen. His solos also more often fit the context of a song, help telling its story instead of just showing off. And his guitar tone and lead work is also very smooth and symphonic. 

Overall, "The Prophet's Song" is in this man's estimation, one of the finest rock epics ever created. Few other songs truly capture such a sense of grandeur and possess such sweeping, awe inspiring mood and imagery. I can only imagine what it must have been like, to be able to hear bands like Queen, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, and more, back in the 70s when this sound was new, and still forming. When literally no one had heard music like this before. But I will always be eternally grateful for the internet, for among its many faults and idiocies, it continues to serve as a repository for great old entertainment, that in many cases might otherwise eventually be forgotten. And I hope, in writing pieces like this, that I do my part in helping to inspire new generations to seek out and enjoy this music, because it is beautiful, incredible art, and deserves to be heard, forever. 

 

 

                                                    *************************

 

 

Here are the song's lyrics, and the song itself, so that you may experience its majesty for yourselves. 

Oh, people of the earth,
Listen to the warning, the seer he said,
"Beware the storm that gathers here".
Listen to the wise man.

 

I dreamed I saw on a moonlit stair,
Spreading his hand on the multitude there.
A man who cried for a love gone stale,
And ice-cold hearts of charity bare.

I watched as fear took the old man's gaze,
Hopes of the young in troubled graves.

 "I see no day, " I heard him say,
"So grey is the face of every mortal".

 

Oh, people of the earth,
Listen to the warning, the prophet he said,
"For soon the cold of night will fall, summoned by your own hand."

Ah, children of the land,
Quicken to the new life, take my hand.
Fly and find the new green bough,
Return like the white dove.

 

He told of death, as a bone white haze,
Taking the lost and the unloved babe.
Late too late, all the wretches run,
These kings of beasts, now counting their days.

From mother's love, is the son estranged,
Married his own, his precious gain.
The earth will shake, in two will break,
And death all round will be your dowry.

 

Ah, people of the earth,
Listen to the warning, the seer he said,
"For those who hear and mark my words, listen to the good plan."

And two by two, my human zoo,
They'll be running for to come out of the rain.
Flee for your life!
Who heed me not, let all your treasure make you. 

Fear for your life!
Deceive you not, the fires of hell will take you,
Should death await you.

God give you grace, to purge this place,
And peace all around, may be your fortune.
Ah, children of the land,
Love is still the answer, take my hand.
The vision fades, a voice I hear,
"Listen to the madman".

But still I fear,  and still I dare not.
Laugh at the madman...