Hero

[Image: 'Meltdown' Front Cover]

Sections:

Lyrics

When the house fell asleep
There was always a light
And it fell from the page to the eyes
Of an American boy

In a storybook land
I could dream what I read
When it went to my head I'd see
I wanna be a hero

But the practical side
Said the question was still
When you grow up what will you be?
I wanna be a hero

Hero
It's a nice-boy notion that the real world's gonna destroy
You know
It's a Marvel comic book Saturday matinee fairytale, boy

Growing older you'll find
That illusions are bought
And the idol you thought you'd be
Was just another zero

I wanna be a hero

Heroes died when the squealers bought 'em off
Died when the dealers got 'em off
Welcome to the "in it for the money as an idol" show

When they ain't as big as life
When they ditch their second wife
Where's the boy to go?

Gotta be a hero

Hero
It's a nice-boy notion that the real world's gonna destroy
You know
It's a Marvel comic book Saturday matinee fairytale, boy

When the house fell asleep
From a book I was led
To a light that I never knew
I wanna be your hero

And he spoke to my heart
From the moment I prayed
Here's a pattern I made for you
I wanna be your hero

Recorded Appearances

Albums

Promos

Bootlegs

About The Song

From Clone Club News Flash Spring/Summer 1984, Spring/Summer 1984:

["Hero"] is the most personal song on the album. I remember as a boy I'd pull a book out from under my bedcovers after my parents had turned out the lights and read by streetlight outside my window. My favorite books were biographies of presidents or generals or kings and queens, but as I'd grow older and read more in-depth accounts, I'd discover that my heroes weren't all they were made out to be. Yet the more I read about Jesus, the more I realized that He was the one hero who wasn't going to disappoint me, and that I could pattern my life after Him.

From Who Does Not Want To Be a Clone?, Campus Life, January 1987:

"Hero" was one of the first songs that came out of a definite personal experience. When I was a kid, after my parents turned the lights off, I would read a book by the lights from outside my window. I was really into biographies--presidents, legends, things like that. I was always looking for heroes to pattern my life after. Yet as I grew up and started reading more in-depth accounts, these great people weren't always as great as I had first thought. It was a rude awakening for me. Yet, the opposite occurred with Jesus. The more I learned about him, the more I realized he was the person I could pattern my life after. Here was a hero who wasn't going to be a disappointment.

From Now The Truth Can Be Told Liner Notes & Song-By-Song Essays, Now The Truth Can Be Told Insert Booklet, August 23rd, 1994:

And sometimes, by the grace of God, we get it right. My eyes went bad at an early age from all the books I read late at night using the streetlamp outside my bedroom window (this wouldn't have happened if I'd watched more television...). Biographies were a favorite, but the accounts I'd read at age nine didn't necessarily tell the whole unvarnished story. The more I'd read, the more my heroes (except for maybe Abraham Lincoln) tended to shrink in stature, eventually causing my adolescent psyche no small amount of post- Watergate disillusionment ("Dad, what does 'expletive deleted' mean?").

Role models may vary in quality and consistency, but all are ultimately born to disappoint. Jesus is the only hero worth having.