Johnny Clegg & Savuka - The Promise lyrics

Electric chair didn't burn a hair

and the newspaperman asked why

and while the warden explain in great detail

the newsman looked in the sky

"I'm sure!", he said, "if you look a little deeper

for something in his life

we could understand the reason why

he reached out for a knife."

Oooh! What happened to the promise?

Oooh! what happened to the one we knew?

So, onto a a train the newspaperman rode

down to the southern lands

to find out about a child long gone

turned into a lightning man.

Chorus:

Oooh! what happened to the promise?

Oooh! what happened to the one we knew?

Oooh! what happened to the promise?

Oooh! what happened to the heart so true.

"Some of them make it through", she said

"some of them never do, and one of them

got lost in time -- that child of mine

Oh, I loved that child of mine!"

Arriving in a country town

with a notepad in his hand

he spoke to the mother and the father

and a friend and a teacher and a preacher man

They all recalled a regular boy chewing gim

and playing in the sand

nothing could explain how he became

a lonely lightning man

And when the coffin came

on the southbound train

and the old folks shuffled by

the one they came to bury

was not very heavy, just a child lost in time

Chorus

What happens to the clear blue eye

when it enters the forest?

does anybody know where the little one goes?

what happens to the child in time?

-- some of them make it through

-- some of them never do

-- some of them are lost and saved

-- some of them find their way

oooh -- hold on to the promise

we're going to make it through my baby

we're going to make it through my little darling