Steppenwolf - Children of the Night lyrics

Words and music by John Kay

Some of us are Rock n' Roll stars

Chasing the flash and travel

Most of us wear the right length of hair

But that's all that is left of the dream

Oh, the dream it was born in the summer of love

And it died with the Woodstock Nation

But what has it left for the carpenter's son

And the new coming generation?

Oh, we all believed we knew the way

But fate did not agree

Now we've tired of asking who we are

And what we ought to be

Children of the night howling at the gate

Here to claim forgotten dreams

Too late, too late

Orphans of the darkness

Waiting to belong

Been list'ning to the same old story

Too long to care, too long

Barely thirteen…hard and they're mean…

Hunting in packs…like jackals…

They prey on the meek, the old and the weak

Like a scourge on the face of the earth

All around our town

They're fighting with guns

And building their homemade bazookas

And ten year old Jimmy got arrested in school

They found a tank in his locker

Oh, we all believed we held the key

To peaceful harmony

But the times have changed the way we feel

And we fear our destiny

Sure must be fun to watch a president run

Just ask the man who owns one

Why, up on the hill, they're killing the bill

That would pay for his capitol crime

But cardinal sin- he blessed him and said

"I know that you're rotten down to the core

But nobody else can do it so well

That's why I'm behind you for three years more"

Oh, they all believed they'd found the one

Who'd lead them to the light

But the tides will turn against the fool

Who'd believe that wrong it right

© 1974 Black Leather Music, Inc. (BMI)