[Verse 1]

If the double-row eighteen-cylinder

Air-cooled radial engine

Is not enough to tip you off

Before he slips you off the needle

Drops you into unstitched space

The wasteland which henceforth

Shall be referred to as “your place”

[Chorus]

The captain lives by the sword

And the captain loves by the sword

When the captain dies by the sword

He'll leave you trapped in the cockpit

Crying out "Mayday!"

[Verse 2]

When a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher aerial courtship

Nosedives in a blitzkrieg from that Whiskey Delta

You can tell the backyard bomber

Never helmed a cargo crate

He croaks out undoing and doom

To the wishful safety net

You jeopardized your life to loom

[Chorus]

The captain lives by the sword

And the captain loves by the sword

Once you elope with the captain

You'll leave on a sordid honeymoon

Trapped in the cockpit

Crying out "Mayday!"

[Instrumental]

[Bridge]

Always the last and never the least

Always the fast and never the feast

Always the cult of domesticity

Always the jolts of electricity

Always surpassed and never decreased

Always amassed and never released

Always the past controls your mind

Never the peace you hoped to God you'd finally find

[Chorus]

The captain lives by the sword

And the captain loves by the sword

And when he dies by the sword

He’ll reward you for your obedience

For your countenance has woven in at every turn

[Outro]

Even as the back, even as the back

Of the hand

Even as the back, even as the back

Of the hand still burns

Even as the back, even as the back

Of the hand still burns

From the last airstrike