The album version of the song starts with a Baroque styled brass fanfare and then develops in to a MiniMoog sequence before the song proper starts. The song includes a midway solo of the bands three string players. At the end of the song the string instruments fade out into “Laredo Tornado.” The U.S. edited single version of this song is missing the fanfare intro, parts of the orchestral bridge, and the 2nd to last chorus. The song was released as the second single from the Eldorado album but failed to chart. The song is an anti-war song set during the Crusades and forms the second dream as part of the overall Eldorado dreamscape. It tells a story about a hero returning from a far off war and the rapturous welcome he received from his town folk. Boy Blue (The character of the song) rebuffs the hero worship and declares his hatred of war and stating his refusal to ever take up arms again. To those in the military in the early ’70s, it was set in their lives, in a war far too near.
U.S. Edit:
Album version:
A-Side in the Netherlands (“Poor Boy”):
New Music United 