Electric chair didn't burn a hair
and the newspaperman asked why
and while the warden explain in great detail
the newsman looked in the sky
"I'm sure!", he said, "if you look a little deeper

for something in his life
we could understand the reason why
he reached out for a knife."

Oooh! What happened to the promise?
Oooh! what happened to the one we knew?

So, onto a a train the newspaperman rode
down to the southern lands
to find out about a child long gone
turned into a lightning man.

Chorus:
Oooh! what happened to the promise?
Oooh! what happened to the one we knew?
Oooh! what happened to the promise?
Oooh! what happened to the heart so true.

"Some of them make it through", she said
"some of them never do, and one of them
got lost in time -- that child of mine
Oh, I loved that child of mine!"

Arriving in a country town
with a notepad in his hand
he spoke to the mother and the father
and a friend and a teacher and a preacher man
They all recalled a regular boy chewing gim
and playing in the sand
nothing could explain how he became
a lonely lightning man
And when the coffin came
on the southbound train
and the old folks shuffled by
the one they came to bury
was not very heavy, just a child lost in time

Chorus

What happens to the clear blue eye
when it enters the forest?
does anybody know where the little one goes?
what happens to the child in time?

-- some of them make it through
-- some of them never do
-- some of them are lost and saved
-- some of them find their way
oooh -- hold on to the promise
we're going to make it through my baby
we're going to make it through my little darling