| I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
|
| Everybody knows things are bad.
|
| It’s a depression.
|
| Everybody’s out of work
|
| or scared of losing their job.
|
| The dollar buys a nickel’s worth;
|
| banks are going bust;
|
| shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter;
|
| punks are running wild in the street,
|
| and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do,
|
| and there’s no end to it.
|
| We know
|
| the air is unfit to breathe
|
| and our food is unfit to eat.
|
| And we sit watching our TVs
|
| while some local newscaster tells us
|
| that today we had fifteen homicides
|
| and sixty-three violent crimes,
|
| as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
|
| We all know things are bad —
|
| worse than bad —
|
| they’re crazy.
|
| It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy,
|
| so we don’t go out any more.
|
| We sit in the house,
|
| and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller,
|
| and all we say is, «Please,
|
| at least leave us alone in our living rooms.
|
| Let me have my toaster and my TV
|
| and my steel-belted radials,
|
| and I won’t say anything.
|
| Just leave us alone.»
|
| Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.
|
| I want you to get mad!
|
| I don’t want you to protest.
|
| I don’t want you to riot.
|
| I don’t want you to write to your Congressman,
|
| because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write.
|
| I don’t know what to do about the depression
|
| and the inflation
|
| and the Russians
|
| and the crime in the street.
|
| All I know is that first,
|
| you’ve got to get mad.
|
| You’ve gotta say,
|
| «I'm a human being,
|
| goddammit!
|
| My life has value!» |
| (meaning?)
|
| I want you
|
| to get up now.
|
| I want all of you
|
| to get up out of your chairs.
|
| I want you to get up right now
|
| and go to the window,
|
| open it,
|
| and stick your head out and yell:
|
| «I'm as mad as hell,
|
| and I’m not going to take this anymore!!» |
| (x2)
|
| The world we’re living in is getting smaller,
|
| and all we say is, «Please,
|
| at least leave us alone in our living rooms.
|
| Let me have my toaster and my TV
|
| and my steel-belted radials,
|
| and I won’t say anything.
|
| Just leave us alone.»
|
| Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.
|
| I want you to get mad!
|
| I don’t want you to protest.
|
| I don’t want you to riot.
|
| I don’t want you to write to your Congressman,
|
| because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write.
|
| I don’t know what to do about the depression
|
| and the inflation
|
| and the Russians
|
| and the crime in the street.
|
| All I know is that first,
|
| you’ve got to get mad.
|
| You’ve gotta say,
|
| «I'm a human being,
|
| goddammit!
|
| My life has value!» |
| (meaning?)
|
| I want you
|
| to get up now.
|
| I want all of you
|
| to get up out of your chairs.
|
| I want you to get up right now
|
| and go to the window,
|
| open it,
|
| and stick your head out and yell:
|
| «I'm as mad as hell,
|
| and I’m not going to take this anymore!!» |