Amused_To_Death lyrics
ROGER WATERS - AMUSED TO DEATH The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard Instrumental (switch channels) [Alf Razzell:] "Two things that have haunted me most are the days when I had to collect the paybooks; and when I left Bill Hubbard in no-man's-land. "I was picked up and taken into their trench. And I'd no sooner taken two or three steps down the trench when I heard a call, 'Hello Razz, I'm glad to see you. This is my second night here,' and he said 'I'm feeling bad,' and it was Bill Hubbard, one of the men we'd trained in England, one of the original battalion. I had a look at his wound, rolled him over; I could see it was probably a fatal wound. You could imagine what pain he was in, he was dripping with sweat; and after I'd gone about three shellholes, traversed that, had it been...had there been a path or a road I could have done better. He pummelled me, 'Put me down, put me down, I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me down.' I was hoping he would faint. He said 'I can't go any further, let me die.' I said 'If I leave you here Bill you won't be found, let's have another go.' He said 'All right then.' And the same thing happened; he couldn't stand it any more, and I had to leave him there, in no-man's-land." (switch channels) (girl) "I don't mind about the war, that's one of the things I _like_ to watch, if it's a war going on, 'cause then I know if our side's winning, if our side's losing..." (switch channels) What God Wants, Part I What God wants God gets God help us all What God wants God gets The kid in the corner looked at the priest And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar The priest said God wants goodness God wants light God wants mayhem God wants a clean fight What God wants God gets Don't look so surprised It's only dogma The alien prophet cried The beetle and the springbok Took the Bible from its hook The monkey in the corner Wrote the lesson in his book What God wants God gets God help us all God wants peace God wants war God wants famine God wants chain stores What God wants God gets God wants sedition God wants sex God wants freedom God wants semtex What God wants God gets Don't look so surprised I'm only joking The alien comic cried The jackass and hyena Took the feather from its hook The monkey in the corner Wrote the joke down in his book What God wants God gets God wants boarders God wants crack God wants rainfall God wants wetbacks What God wants God gets God wants voodoo God wants shrines God wants law God wants organised crime God wants crusade God wants jihad God wants good God wants bad What God wants God gets Perfect Sense, Part I The monkey sat on a pile of stones And stared at the broken bone in his hand And the stains of a Viennese quartet Rang out across the land The monkey looked up at the stars And thought to himself Memory is a stranger History is for fools And he cleaned his hands In a pool of holy writing Turned his back on the garden And set out for the nearest town Hold on hold on soldier When you add it all up The tears and the marrowbone There's an ounce of gold And an ounce of pride in each ledger And the Germans killed the Jews And the Jews killed the Arabs And the Arabs killed the hostages And that is the news And is it any wonder That the monkey's confused He said Mama Mama The President's a fool Why do I have to keep reading These technical manuals And the joint chiefs of staff And the brokers on Wall Street said Don't make us laugh You're a smart kid Time is linear Memory is a stranger History is for fools Man is a tool in the hands Of the great God Almighty And they gave him command Of a nuclear submarine And sent him back in search of The Garden of Eden Perfect Sense, Part II Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents Pounds shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Little black soul departs in perfect focus Prime time fodder for the News at Nine Darling is the child warm in the bed tonight Hi everybody I'm Marv Albert And welcome to our telecast Coming to you live from Memorial Stadium It's a beautiful day And today we expect a sensational matchup But first our global anthem Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents Pounds shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense And here come the players As I speak to you now the captain Has his cross hairs zeroed in on the oil rig It looks to me like he's going to attack By the way did you know that a submarine Captain earns 200,000 dollars a year Oh that's less tax Marv yeah less tax Uh thank you Emery you're welcome Now back to the game he fires one yes There goes two both fish are running The rig is going into a prevent defense Will they make it I don't think so Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents Pounds shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range You have a natural tendency To squeeze off a shot You're good fun at parties You wear the right masks You're old but you still Like a laugh in the locker room You can't abide change You're at home on the range You opened your suitcase Behind the old workings To show off the magnum You deafened the canyon A comfort a friend Only upstaged in the end By the Uzi machine gun Does the recoil remind you Remind you of sex Old man what the hell you gonna kill next Old timer who you gonna kill next I looked over Jordan and what did I see Saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris I swam in your pools And lay under your palm trees I looked in the eyes of the Indian Who lay on the Federal Building steps And through the range finder over the hill I saw the front line boys popping their pills Sick of the mess they find On their desert stage And the bravery of being out of range Yeah the question is vexed Old man what the hell you gonna kill next Old timer who you gonna kill next Hey bartender over here Two more shots And two more beers Sir turn up the TV sound The war has started on the ground Just love those laser guided bombs They're really great For righting wrongs You hit the target And win the game From bars 3,000 miles away 3,000 miles away We play the game With the bravery of being out of range We zap and maim With the bravery of being out of range We strafe the train With the bravery of being out of range We gain terrain With the bravery of being out of range With the bravery of being out of range We play the game With the bravery of being out of range Late Home Tonight, Part I Standing at the window A farmer's wife in Oxfordshire Glances at the clock it's nearly time for tea She doesn't see The phantom in the hedgerow dip its wings Doesn't hear the engine sing But in the cockpit's techno glow Behind the Ray Ban(R) shine The kid from Cleveland In the comfort of routine Scans his dials and smiles Secure in the beauty of military life There is no right or wrong Only tin cans and cordite and white cliffs And blue skies and flight flight flight The beauty of military life No questions only orders and flight only flight What a beautiful sight in his wild blue dream The eternal child leafs through his War magazine And his kind Uncle Sam feeds ten trillion in Change into the total entertainment Combat video game And up here in the stands The fans are goin' wild The cheerleaders flip When you wiggle your hip And we all like the bit when you take The jeans from the refrigerator and Then the bad guy gets hit And were you struck by the satisfying Way the swimsuit sticks to her skin Like BB gun days When knives pierce autumn leaves But that's okay see the children bleed It'll look great on the TV And in Tripoli another ordinary wife Stares at the dripping her old man hadn't Time to fix Too busy mixing politics and rhythm In the street below Late Home Tonight, Part II Hark the wire service sing Clear the satellite link Check the fax machine Hold the lead story boys There's some great pictures coming in Now the pilot's heartbeat slows Palms dry out No questions only orders And the F-1 glides in nose-up Through the cloudbase and the Ground crew cheers as he puts down His landing gear Hey boy you're a hero take this cigar Back home in Cleveland All the papers and local TV stations Will be calling your ma And the farmer's wife Shoos the cat off the chair She says sit down my dear Was the milking all right Our American friends are late home tonight Too Much Rope When the sleigh is heavy And the timber wolves are getting bold You look at you companions And test the water of their friendship With your toe They significantly edge Closer to the gold Each man has his price Bob And yours was pretty low History is short the sun is just a minor star The poor man sells his kidneys In some colonial bazaar Ce sera sera Is that your new Ferrari car Nice but I think I'll wait for the F50 You don't have to be a Jew To disapprove of murder Tears burn our eyes Moslem or Christian Mullah or Pope Preacher or poet who was it wrote Give any one species too much rope And they'll fuck it up And last night on TV A Vietnam vet Takes his beard and his pain And his alienation twenty years Back to Asia again Sees the monsters they made In formaldehyde floating 'round Meets a gook on a bike A good little tyke A nice enough guy With the same soldier's eyes Tears burn my eyes What does it mean This tearjerking scene Beamed into my home That it moves me so much Why all the fuss It's only two humans being It's only two humans being Tears burn my eyes What does it mean This tender TV This tearjerking scene Beamed into my home You don't have to be a Jew To disapprove of murder Tears burn in our eyes Moslem or Christian Mullah or Pope Preacher or poet who was it wrote Give any one species too much rope And they'll fuck it up What God Wants, Part II Do you believe in a better day Do you have faith in a golden way If you do then we must come together this day Come together as one united Television audience Brought together by the sound of my voice United united financially united socially United spiritually and all possible ways Through the power of money And the power of prayers What God wants God gets God help us all God wants dollars God wants cents God wants pounds shillings and pence God wants guilders God wants Kroner God wants Swiss francs God wants French francs Oui il veut des francs francais God wants escudos God wants pesetas Don't send lira God don't want small potatoes God wants small towns God wants pain God wants clean up rock campaigns God wants windows God wants solutions God wants TV God wants contributions What God wants God gets God help us all God wants silver God wants gold God wants his secret Never to be told God wants gigolos God wants giraffes God wants politics God wants a good laugh What God wants God gets God help us all God wants friendship God wants fame God wants credit God wants blame God wants poverty God wants wealth God wants insurance God wants to cover himself What God wants God gets God help us all What God Wants, Part III Don't be afraid it's only business The alien prophet sighed The vulture and the magpie took The cash box from its hook The monkey in the corner wrote The figures in his book Crazed the checkout lady's fingers Flash across the till The captain posts The menu for the day And in banks across the world Christians Moslems Hindus Jews And people of every Race creed colour tint or hue Get down on their knees and pray The raccoon and the groundhog Neatly make up bags of change But the monkey in the corner Well he's slowly drifting out of range Christ it's freezing inside The veteran cries The hyenas break cover And stream through the meadow And the fog rolls in Though his bottle of gin So he picks up a stone That looks like a bone And the bullets fly And the rivers run dry And the fat girls sigh And the network anchor persons lie And the soldier's alone In the video zone But the monkey's not watching He's slipped out to the kitchen To pile the dishes And answer the phone Watching TV I've been watching In Tiananmen Square Lost my baby there My yellow rose In her bloodstained clothes She was a short order pastry chef In a Dim Sum dive on the Yangtze tideway She had shiny hair She was the daughter of an engineer Won't you shed a tear For my yellow rose My yellow rose In her bloodstained clothes She had perfect breasts She had high hopes She had almond eyes She had yellow thighs She was a student of philosophy Won't you grieve with me For my yellow rose Shed a tear For her bloodstained clothes She had shiny hair She had perfect breasts She had high hopes She had almond eyes She had yellow thighs She was the daughter of an engineer So get out your pistols Get out your stones Get out your knives Cut them to the bone They are the lackeys of the grocer's machine They built the dark satanic mills That manufacture hell on earth They bought the front row seats on Calvary They are irrelevant to me But I grieve for my sister People of China Do not forget do not forget The children who died for you Long live the Republic Did we do anything after this I've a feeling we did We were watching TV Watching TV We were watching TV Watching TV She wore a white bandanna that said Freedom now She thought the Great Wall of China Would come tumbling down She was a student Her father was an engineer Won't you shed a tear For my yellow rose My yellow rose In her bloodstained clothes Her grandpa fought old Chiang Kai-shek That no-good low-down dirty rat Who used to order his troops To fire on the women and children Imagine that imagine that And in the spring of '48 Mao Tse-tung got quite irate And he kicked that old dictator Chiang Out of the state of China Chiang Kai-shek came down in Formosa And they armed the island of Quemoy And the shells were flying across the China Sea And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory Called Taiwan And she is different from Cro-Magnon man She's different from Anne Boleyn She is different from the Rosenbergs And from the unknown Jew She is different from the unknown Nicaraguan Half superstar half victim She's a victor star conceptually new And she is different from the Dodo And from the Kankanbono She is different from the Aztec And from the Cherokee She's everybody's sister She's symbolic of our failure She's the one in fifty million Who can help us to be free Because she died on TV And I grieve for my sister Three Wishes Reached back for the bottle And rubbed against the lamp Genie came out smiling Like some Eastern tramp He said hey boy what's happening What is going on You can have three wishes If you don't take too long I said well I wish they were all happy in the Lebanon Wish somebody'd help me write this song I wish when I was young My old man had not been gone Genie said consider it done There's something in the air And you don't know what it is You see someone through the window Who you've just learned to miss And the road leads on to glory but You've used up your last wish Your last wish And you want her to come home Genie said I'm sorry But that's the way it goes Where the hell's the lamp sucker It's time for me to go Bye There's something in the air And you don't know what it is You see someone through the window Who you've just learned to miss And the road leads on to glory but You've used up your last wish Your last wish And you want her to come home It's A Miracle Miraculous you call it babe You ain't seen nothing yet They've got Pepsi in the Andes McDonalds in Tibet Yosemite's been turned into A golf course for the Japs The Dead Sea is alive with rap Between the Tigris and Euphrates There's a leisure centre now They've got all kinds of sports They've got Bermuda shorts They had sex in Pennsylvania A Brazilian grew a tree A doctor in Manhattan Saved a dying man for free It's a miracle Another Miracle By the grace of God Almighty And the pressures of the marketplace The human race has civilized itself It's a miracle We've got warehouses of butter We've got oceans of wine We've got famine when we need it Got designer crime We've got Mercedes We've got Porsche Ferrari and Rolls Royce We've got choice She said meet me In the Garden of Gethsemene my dear The Lord said Peter I can see Your house from here An honest family man Finally reaped what he had sown A farmer in Ohio has just repaid a loan It's a miracle By the grace of God Almighty And the pressures of the marketplace The human race has civilized itself It's a miracle We cower in our shelters With our hands over our ears Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff Runs for years and years and years An earthquake hits the theatre But the operetta lingers Then the piano lid comes down And breaks his fucking fingers It's a miracle Amused To Death Doctor Doctor what is wrong with me This supermarket life is getting long What is the heart life of a colour TV What is the shelf life of a teenage queen Ooh western woman Ooh western girl News hound sniffs the air When Jessica Hahn goes down He latches on to that symbol Of detachment Attracted by the peeling away of feeling The celebrity of the abused shell the belle Ooh western woman Ooh western girl And the children of Melrose Strut their stuff Is absolute zero cold enough And out in the valley warm and clean The little ones sit by their TV screens No thoughts to think No tears to cry All sucked dry Down to the very last breath Bartender what is wrong with me Why am I so out of breath The captain said excuse me ma'am This species has amused itself to death Amused itself to death Amused itself to death We watched the tragedy unfold We did as we were told We bought and sold It was the greatest show on earth But then it was over We ohhed and aahed We drove our racing cars We ate our last few jars of caviar And somewhere out there in the stars A keen-eyed look-out Spied a flickering light Our last hurrah And when they found our shadows Grouped around the TV sets They ran down every lead They repeated every test They checked out all the data on their lists And then the alien anthropologists Admitted they were still perplexed But on eliminating every other reason For our sad demise They logged the explanation left This species has amused itself to death No tears to cry no feelings left This species has amused itself to death (switch channels) [Alf Razzell:] "Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing at Aras[?]. And I...when I saw his name I was absolutely transfixed; it was as though he was now a human being instead of some sort of nightmarish memory of how I had to leave him, all those years ago. And I felt relieved, and ever since then I've felt happier about it, because always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself, 'Was there something else that I could have done?' [background: "I'd rather die, I'd rather die..."] And that always sort of worried me. And having seen him, and his name in the register - as you know in the memorials there's a little safe, there's a register in there with every name - and seeing his name and his name on the memorial; it sort of lightened my...heart, if you like." (woman) "When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?" "Ah, when I was eighty-seven, that would be a year, ninete...eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four." Back to Lyrics index --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Humphreys, CS Department, Princeton University,