Great Bird

Tune: "American Pie", Don McLean
Words: Gary J. Ehrlich (c) 12/91

My tribute to Gene Roddenberry

[SLOW]

Not so very long ago

I can still remember

How his vision used to make me smile

And Gene knew if he really tried

That he could make his starship fly

He made the viewers happy for a while

But late October it all ended

At every con that I attended

Bad news from the studio

He wouldn't dream one more show

I can't remember if I cried

When I looked into poor Majel's eyes

A phaser burned me deep inside

The day the Great Bird died

     So, bye bye, the Great Bird's in the sky

     Brought his starship to the airwaves

     And his starship still flies

     Them loyal fans will keep his memory alive

     Singin' "We will never let Star Trek die."

     "We will never let Star Trek die."

[FAST]

Did you read the captain's log

And do you have faith in stars above

If the novels tell you so

Do you believe in an alien place

Can Star Trek save the human race

And can it teach us how to live in peace

Well I know that I'm in love with Trek

Cause I sit and watch it every week

I hope they never lose

Man I dig those Enterprise crews

I was a Starfleet fan through all the years

With a red shirt and a pair of ears

And I cried till I was out of tears

The day the Great Bird died

I started singing...

CHORUS

Now for twenty-five years Trek's flown along

When most shows never last so long

But that's not what Trek's fate would be

When the Captain flew for the UFP

In a starship engineered by Scotty

And their story reached out to you and me

And when our Trek was heading down

The fans all made their presence known

The show was not dispatched

Our Trek kept coming back

And while Picard read a Shakespeare play

The actors practiced on the stage

And we sang filks all night and day

The day the Great Bird died

We were singing...

CHORUS

Well science fiction Star Trek altered

The Big E flew but the ratings faltered

Three years low and fallin' fast

And cancellation came to pass

The fans wrote letters by the sack

But the heads of Paramount killed Trek at last

Then it returned as a brief cartoon

And syndication proved a money boom

We watched the novels come

But we all thought Trek was done

Then the studio brought it to the screen

Made more money than you've ever seen

Do they dream what the profit will be

Now that Trek Six is here!

And they'll be singing...

CHORUS

And then it came back for all to see

The next generation on TV

With a new crew and ship it starts again

But no more Gene is nimble, Gene is quick

Gene has gotten very sick

And we may lose our long-trekkin' friend

And when I heard he'd passed away

My eyes were wide in shock and pain

No doc from Starfleet Med

Could bring Gene from the dead

And as his soul warped into the night

Too like a starship's final flight

I saw some fans laugh with delight

The day the Great Bird died

CHORUS (they were singing...)

[SLOW]

I met a girl who was a con-goer

And I asked her for some Star Trek rumors

And she just smiled and turned away

I went down to the SF store

Where I'd bought the episodes before

But the man there said the videos wouldn't play

And in the streets the fans all screamed

The actors cried and the writers dreamed

But Trek just kept on showin'

The studio kept it goin'

And the three men I admire first

The Doctor, Spock and Captain Kirk

They beamed aboard the last ship to Earth

The day the Great Bird died

CHORUS (and they were singing..)

CHORUS (again, slighly faster)