Various Artists Follow

He'd started talking to himself
His ma was dead
The first sign of madness, talking to yourself

Alarm bells should have
Been going off in his head
As clear as crystal he ignored the S.O.S.
Gave a little whistle, made his last request

He tuned into his local commercial radio station
And listened to the spokesman for his generation
Who said, "Put your hands in the air like you just don't care"

Put your hands in the air like you just don't care
About anything or anybody
About love, hate, cruelty or pain
About football or music, the sun, the wind and the rain

It's the after taste of paradise
It doesn't pay to advertise
Part one in a two part pack of lies
A titillating, trivialized

Television fairy tale
By clever men with pony tails
All the trimmings and nothing else
Tom Cruise instead of Orson Welles

We owe you nothing say The Bells
Of Hollywood and Tunbridge Wells
Never mind the quality feel yourself
Slipping into mental health

I thank the Lord that I was blessed
With more than my share of bitterness
Because everything is fixed
It's all done with mirrors and camera tricks

Miles and miles of cheesy smiles
In churches and cathedrals
Won't feed the cold and needy child
And put an end to evil

It's elementary my dear Watson
From the pistol and the smoke
The Jetsam and The Flotsam
Are the victims of a cruel and stupid joke

He turned off his radio
Looked at his newspaper
And he thought about truth
And he thought about lies and he thought about

Overcoats and paper planes
Homes for votes and shit for brains
Fascist bully boys and girls
From the ashes of a poison world

All the news that's fit to print
In poison pen and tabloid ink
Tits and arse, bring back the birch
Then take the children off to church

Miles and miles of cheesy smiles
In churches and cathedrals
Won't feed the cold and needy child
And put an end to evil

It's elementary my dear Watson
From the pistol and the smoke
The Jetsam and The Flotsam
Are the victims of a cruel and stupid joke

He'd started talking to himself
His ma was dead