A long time ago, at a school I used to go to
Prom night, in the heat of July
The king and queen snogged by the toilets
The school band plays the Long Slow Goodbye
The limousines cook on the tarmac
And the teachers overseeing the event
Just wanna go back home
A boy vomits up his canteen dinner
In the high school's honeysuckle garden
He mops his lips on a handkerchief
His peers are smoking and they're lit up in halogen
On the way to the loo to wash his face
The king and queen are locked in an embrace
They learnt from a film
And I was waiting round the corner in my car
To pick up my sister, when this charade was over
And I was listening to the radio
Then a tap at the door from a limousine chauffer
I wound down my window, he said 'can you hear what I hear?'
And I listened to the wailing that was coming
From the gate of the school
And the wails became a flood
I never heard so many screams
People coming out covered in blood
Do you know what it was?
It was like Halloween
The smell of fear, and the smell of smoke
Mixed together in the fans and the flames
Like a perfume I'll never forget
I ran around screaming her name
In the belly of a burning dog
I never saw her again
But sometimes I hear her in the rain
But I swear to God, that night
Before the sirens arrived on the scene
Something stepped out from under the rubble
Whatever it was
It was like Halloween
(Oh, oh, it was like Halloween
Oh, oh, it was like Halloween
Oh, oh, it was like Halloween
Oh, oh, it was like Halloween)
