The Great Goodnight
2002 · Magna Carta MA-9045-2 · USA
- Artist
- Magellan
- Title
- The Great Goodnight
- Release
- Hundred Year Flood
- Year
- 2002
- Label
- Magna Carta # MA-9045-2
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Rock · Progressive Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Progressive Rock / Progressive Metal group Megellan, formed in 1985 in Vacaville, California, USA, and disbanded in 2016. The line-up featured the brothers Trent Gardner (lead vocals, keyboards, trombone) and Wayne Gardner (guitar, bass, backing vocals). The song "The Great Goodnight" (Magna Carta Records # MA-9045-2), was a 34 minute track, about Jack Elroy, who died in Vietnam - the brother of the band members.1 The narrator recalled being only four when he went away to war: "I don't remember you, I have seen your pictures". The narrator noted that his brother had "been gone only 6 weeks", when the army informed the family of his death - they received his Purple Heart medal, and letter from the president: "on this day in May 1966 for wounds received in action". The song represented the impact of death on a family: "mom... she took it worse than anyone, she really believed he would make it".Sources1AllMusic↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: I was only four, I don't remember you, I have seen your pictures... / Brother...in this great goodnight, a black frame still protects / Those two letters from the President, they start out: / On this day in May 1966 for wounds received in action / Still hanging here after all of this time / Right next to your purple heart in this great goodnight.... / I love this black and white of you playing the harmonica / You were only 19 but to this kid you were probably more like 43... / You'd been gone only 6 weeks when the Army brass came / To the door knocking, breaking the news, breaking our hearts / When they broke the news to mom, she really believed / He didn't have to go... / But instead you had your final day in Vietnam... / She took it worse than anyone / She really believed he would make it back home / 'He didn't have to go to Vietnam'...
About the artist
Magellan were an American progressive rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1985 by the brothers Trent Gardner (lead vocals, keyboards, trombone; died 11 June 2016) and Wayne Gardner (guitars, bass, keyboards; died February 2014), who between them released seven albums and a run of singles over three decades. "The Great Goodnight" is the thirty-four-minute suite, divided across thirteen indexed parts, that opens their album 'Hundred Year Flood', issued in 2002 on Magna Carta and Roadrunner, on which the brothers were joined by Joe Franco, Tony Levin, Ian Anderson, George Bellas and…