The Big Parade Lyrics - 10,000 Maniacs

Detroit to D.C. night train 

Capitol, parts East 

Lone young man takes a seat 

And by the rhythm of the rails 

Reading all his mother's mail 

From a city boy in a jungle town 

Postmarked Saigon 

He'll go live his mother's dream 

Join the slowest parade he'll ever see 

Her weight of sorrows carried long and carried far 

Take these Tommy to the wall 

Metro line to the Mall site with a tour of Japanese 

He's wandering and lost until a vet in worn fatigues 

Takes him down to where they belong 

Near a soldier, an ex-Marine 

With a tattooed dagger and eagle trembling 

He bites his lip beside a widow breaking down 

She takes her Purple Heart 

Makes a fist, strikes the wall 

All come to live a dream 

To join the slowest parade they'll ever see 

Their weight of sorrows carried long and carried far 

Taken to the wall 

It's 40 paces to the year that he was slain 

His hand's slipping down the wall for it's slick with rain 

How would life have ever been the same 

If this wall had carved in it one less name? 

But for Christ's sake, he's been dead over 20 years 

He leaves the letters asking 

Who caused my mother's tears 

Was it Washington or the Viet Cong? 

Slow deliberate steps are involved 

He takes them away from the black granite wall 

Toward the other monuments so white and clean 

Potomac, what you've seen 

Abraham had his war too, but an honest war 

Or so it's taught in school