The Hero's Return

Lyrics:

Jesus, Jesus, what's it all about?
Trying to clout these little ingrates into shape.
When I was their age all the lights went out.
There was no time to whine or mope about.
And even now part of me flies over
Dresden at angels one five.
Though they'll never fathom it behind my
Sarcasm desperate memories lie.

Sweetheart sweetheart are you fast asleep? Good.
'Cause that's the only time that I can really speak to you.
And there is something that I've locked away
A memory that is too painful
To withstand the light of day.

When we came back from the war the banners and
Flags hung on everyone's door.
We danced and we sang in the street and
The church bells rang.
But burning in my heart
My memory smolders on
Of the gunners dying words on the intercom.

"The Hero's Return" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd from their twelfth studio album, The Final Cut (1983).

Like many tracks included on The Final Cut, "The Hero's Return" had – under its original title "Teacher, Teacher" – been previously rejected from their eleventh studio album The Wall (1979). Guitarist David Gilmour was opposed to this recycling of songs, believing that if they "weren't good enough for The Wall, why are they good enough now?"

Like many other tracks on The Final Cut, "The Hero's Return" featured anti-war lyrics. The lyrics of "The Hero's Return" are almost entirely rewritten from its "Teacher, Teacher" demo version.

Retitled as "The Hero's Return (Parts 1 and 2)" with an extra verse absent from The Final Cut version, the song was released as the B-side of "Not Now John", also from The Final Cut, in April 1983. Despite not being released as an A-side to a single, "The Hero's Return" charted at No. 31 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.