Where Have All Our Heroes Gone

Where have all our heroes gone what's come over our great land

America is still my home sweet home but where have all our heroes gone

I saw a group of boys the other day standing in the corner of a playground

Looking and laughin' at a magazine

And I overheard one of the boys said man is he ever cool

And he pointed to the man who's picture was on the magazine cover

And everybody kinda said under their breath yeah he's cool alright

And I got sick to my stomach

Because I'd seen the cover and the man that they were talking about

Had instigated a riot in one of our major cities last summer

And the magazine was writing about how the police were unkind to him

The judges were not fair with him

And how he talked back and slung his long hair about and cussed

And did his things and they made him into a regular hero

And inside this magazine was the story of a baseball player

Who got involted with the gamblers

Of the football player who said that football was not the end

Just a mean to an end meanin' the girls and the good times

And a story of a folk singer who proudly claims

To be both a member of a party ailen to our government and a nontax payin' citizen

These young boys read with open eyes and open minds

And I thought to myself my God

Are these the people that these young boys look up to

Are these their idols are these the heroes of the now generation

(America is still my home sweet home but where have all our heroes gone)

I had heroes when I was a kid we all did and our heroes did their thing too

Like General Douglas McArthur who returned like he said he would

Like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers who chased the bad guys right off the screen

Like Lindberg who flew the ocean and Jesse Owens who showed Hitler

And John Wayne and Gerry Cooper after all didn't they really win the war

And General Ike bless your soul cause he made us feel safe

We've killed some of our recent heroes the Kennedys and Kings

And even as great as their space feats are

How many of the astronauts can you name huh how many

My heroes were people like Joe DiMaggio who proved that nice guys can finish first

And Stan Musian who never had an unkind word for anybody

And Winston Churchill who's two fingers raised together meant victory

Not just a let-your-enemy-have-it-all kind of artificial peace

This country needs a lotta things today friends

But it doesn't need any one thing anymore than it needs some real heroes

Men who know what it means to be looked up to by a griny faced kid

Men who wanna sign autograph books and not deal under the table

Men who are willing to play the game with the people who made them heroes

Men who don't mind putting on a white hat and saying thank you and please

I wish I knew more men that I'd be proud of for my son to look up to and say

Daddy when I grow up I want to be just-like-him (Where have all our heroes gone)