Lyrics of 'Shah Of Shahs' by Al Stewart

After these processions comes the sweeping up
The rag and bone possessions, an old tin cup
The army trucks have hauled away the newly slain
The angry crowd retreats, but they'll be back again
And the prisoner in the palace does not understand
The ingratitude around him
After all he's done and planned
But if this is the way that it must be, then he'll be damned
if he will let them take away his perfect dream

Ministers stuff bank notes into leather bags
Their wives have packed the jewelry and the luggage tags
The word is on the street now growing day by day
And even the informers know to stay away
And the prisoner in the palace is confused by this charade
Feeling strangely unprotected by his miles of golden braid
And if this is the way that it must be then unafraid
He will not let them take away his perfect dream

And these mountains of equipment
Brought from foreign lands
Are now stacked up in the desert being buried in the sand
These rows of helicopters, rusting where they stand
Are butterflies to take away the perfect dream

He cried inside the limousine, and at the airport too
When the soldier knelt before him and kissed his shoe
He flew across the desert and the open sea
While they tore down all his statues and his legacy
And the victor greets the newsmen
With his strange and stoic style
They take a hundred thousand pictures
And none of them a smile
But this is just the way thiat is must be now for a while
He's only come to bring another perfect dream