New Christ Cardiac Hero - Janis Ian

Yesterday’s preacher, today’s bikini beacher

They’ve stolen your clerical robes and your bible’s been thrown

Your virgin red crown of thorns has turned to ivory horns

And your corner throne, it has become a coroner’s stone

Your crucifix you prayed on turned to jail-house bars

Silver chain you left out in the rain to glow with dust

And turned to seaweed tangled in your heart

Now how does it feel to pull out the nails

And find you still can walk?

Oh, you can’t feel it all from your self imposed rack on the wall

The tighter you drive the nails the harder you fall

So come on down, come off it sir you’re gonna get hurt

The holy water you bathe in mingles with the sewer

All your disciples have reclaimed their rifles and taken the cure

Your lectures of ways are only today’s pool room jokes

Remaining scrawled on the walls of tenement halls and bathroom bowls

As jingle bells cry «Pay us well or you’ll go to hell»

Freedom’s chains bind your pain and tie you well

But how could you know the gallows you hold weighs you down?

Now isn’t it boss you don’t need a cross to get around

Oh, you can’t feel it all from your self imposed rack on the wall

The tighter you drive the nails, the harder you’ll fall

So come on down, come off it sir you’re gonna get hurt

Oh your eyes that cried for mankind’s pride are covered with shades

As the children of God trample unshod past your mindly grave

New Christ, hipster, cardiac hero of 2000 years past your mind

He spits at your feet crying

«We have no need of a god, each of us is his own»

Yesterday’s preacher, today’s bikini beacher

They’ve stolen your clerical robes and your bible’s been thrown

Ah, you must have a cross but they’ve taken your God

And shot you filled with dead

So following new Christ, pick up on a cycle instead

Oh, you can’t feel it all from your self imposed rack on the wall

And the tighter you drive the nails, the harder you’ll fall

So come on down, come off it sir before you get hurt