Attack Ships On Fire

Album: Big Sexy Land (1986)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title is a reference to Rutger Hauer's dying soliloquy at the end of the movie Blade Runner. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    John - Levittown, NY

Comments: 2

  • Left Body Kick from Middle Class, Usa Rachel’s Song by Vangelis was introduced to me by someone special in my life. She told me more than once that we had met in a prior life. Maybe she’s right. This song always makes me think about her.
    How we would open up to each other, how we would just look at each other, and communicate without talking. I opened up to her but then somethings I could never tell her. I wanted to though.
    One thing I remember is when we would sleep in the same bed - sometimes she wanted me to turn her to the side, put an arm around her and rub her tummy gently to help her go to sleep. She’s be asleep within five minutes!
    I miss doing that.

    I wasn’t ready for certain things and she wanted them.
    Maybe I’m just a coward after all.
    Good song and when I can’t sleep, I go walking and listen to this one.
    I guess I’ll see her in the next life.
  • Robert from Puyallup, WaRoy Batty (Rutger Hauer) speaks these lines as he dies at the end of "Blade Runner":

    "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate."

    There's a little more that I can't remember at the moment. Many fans of the film prefer the director's cut without Harrison Ford's narration. I think the narration track can be effective at times. After Batty dies, Rick Deckard (Ford) narrates: "I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments, he loved life more than he ever had before. I couldn't do anything for him; all could do was sit there and watch him die."
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