CONSUMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
Consumers of the world, unite!
Buy nothing! It’s all over priced
It costs you all your working life
You’re spending all your peace of mind
Consumers of the world, unite!
You’ve nothing to lose but your chainstores
And economic growth
It’s just a fucking joke with a bad punchline
Consumers of the world, unite!
Don’t buy the shit that you were told to buy
Your life will not be better
Your pocket will be lighter
And the people in the third world who are making it
They don’t benefit
And Mother Earth is spinning just as fast as she can
Don’t need to spin her any faster
And you know we’ve been treating her as a slave
When it’s clear she is the master
And we’re gonna be in trouble if we don’t show her some respect
Consumers of the world, unite!
WITH MY FRIENDS
Wouldn’t it be nice if food just grew on trees
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could drink from streams
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the means
To live our own way
And I could spend my days working here with you
Living out my days with my friends
Wouldn’t it be grand to live life simply on a little land
Wouldn’t it be fine to spend time with the ones who understand
With the friends we love
And I could spend my days working here with you
Living out my days with my friends
One happy day he decided to unplug his head from the national grid
And now I spend my days working here with you
Living out my days with my friends
MONGREL
Well I know I got a sparkle in my eye
And it’s true I’m pretty quick on the uptake
And I like to make a little mischief when I can
And I’m scruffy but I’m handsome in an unconventional way
And I’ve always been a mongrel
Rough around the edges
Bloodline complicated
Loveable enough
Well I see that there is a place for me
And it’s clear that place ain’t big or shiny
But I’ve found a few good folks to hang around
And we’re making our way just the best that we can
And I’ve always been a mongrel
Rough around the edges
Bloodline complicated
Loveable enough
And you’ll never confuse me with alpha males from fairytales
But that don’t bother me –
We’re better than those well-bred, pedigree motherfuckers any day
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
This land is your land
This land is my land
From the treeless forests
To the arctic island
From the landfill mountains
To the flooded oceans
This land was made by you and me
As I was crawling
Along a jammed up highway
I looked above me
Saw a smoggy skyway
And down below me
No grass was growing
This land was made by you and me
This land is your land…
I walked through fields
Owned by McDonalds
Cows belching methane
Before they killed them
And in those fields
No crops was growing
This land was made by you and me
This land is your land…
As I was standing
In line at Wal-Mart
A pile of new stuff
Filling up my shopping cart
I knew I need it
Cos I seen it on the TV
This land was made by you and me
This land is your land…
If I can change it
I’ll surely change it
Right back how it was
Before we maimed it
And each day I’m trying
Each day I’m trying
Cos this land
If it’s gonna be a new land
If it’s gonna be a new land
It’s gonna be made by you and me
THE BLOKE DOWNSTAIRS
This bloke who lived downstairs from me I thought he was insane
He said there’s gonna be wars and great big hurricanes
And the floods’ll come and swamp us and the deserts’ll grow
I thought ‘You can’t have it both ways’ but what did I know?
Cos there’s fighting to the left of me there’s flooding to the right
The Arctic’s now an island – the end’s almost in sight
There’s rioting around the world, we can’t afford to eat
We can’t afford our houses, we can’t afford the heat
America builds empires as England tags along
And Russia says fuck you lot, and the Middle East is getting strong
Cos everyone wants lovely oil to make their riches grow
I wish they’d leave it in the ground but what do I know?
Cos they’re in it for the short game – they just don’t give a fuck
They’d sell their fucking grandmothers to keep their ratings up
Lip service to climate change but let’s mine more coal now
Call climate campers terrorists cos protest’s not allowed
The bloke who lived downstairs from me they’ve taken him away
They’ve had him extradited to Guantanimo Bay
I asked them what the problem was – he seemed alright to me
They zapped me with a tazer, said ‘National security’
I thought ‘You’re just a bunch of thugs’ – it turned me radical
But I think I’ll get away with it cos all the jails are full
I’m gonna make a protest flag and hang it on the roof
They’ll get me on CCTV but I’ll blame it on the youth
I’ll tell em that the youth had drugs, and knives and gonorrhea
Cos when they put that on the news it gives us all the Fear
I’m gonna write into the Daily Mail and blame it on the Poles
And Islamic fundamentalists with anti-royalist goals
But what will I write on my flag? I’m not so good with words
Gonna need a PR company to get my message heard
But I haven’t got the money. I’m gonna need a job
If I want to stick it to this fascist government mob
But when I get back home from work I like to watch the telly
I wasn’t planning on all this fuss just to be a revolutionary
I wish the Earth would hurry up and wipe out the human race
I’m sure without the people this’d be quite a nice place
Finish up – it’s time please, we all just sit and stare
I wish I’d taken more notice of that bloke who lived downstairs
CELEBRITY’S LAMENT
I’m not for real
Don’t believe in me
I’m just a cartoon boy and I only live in 2D
I’m in your dream
You made me up
I’m just a speck of time who’ll never shine enough
You wanna be like me?
I cannot tell for why
I’m Photoshop
I’m artificial light
I only speak in lines that other people write
But I made my bed
I’m gonna die in it
Just as soon as TV and the papers say I’m dead
You wanna be like me?
I cannot tell for why
In all the magazines
I’m today’s A-list queen
But I’m made of Pleistocene
And they made me up
ROUTE 666
Got your little toys to play with
They will keep you busy for a while
And even if you’d thought of it
You’re just to fucking lazy to change style
Cos you been getting your kicks on Route 666
Every time I look at you
You’ve got a fucking burger in your mouth
Sitting in your ugly car
You’re feeling pretty happy with yourself
Cos you been getting your kicks on Route 666
And I wish I had my own planet sometimes
I’d let the animals come live on mine
And I’d leave you sitting in your own plastic shit
Wondering why it’s all shit
Why you can’t get no kicks on Route 666
IT’S DONE
I’m sorry son
I know we had the time once
To turn it back
To cool it down again but
We were slack
Couldn’t get our heads round it
It was too big
And now the time has gone and
It’s done
And I’m so sorry for that
For all the pain
That we could have averted
For all the dead
All the animals gone
It was a magical land
It was so beautiful then
Oh come on son
Won’t you stop from crying
It wasn’t you
It was my generation
And we knew
Just didn’t have it in us
What can you do?
Just make the best of it cos
It’s done
And I’m so sorry for that
For all the pain
That we could have averted
For all the dead
All the animals gone
They were so magical son
I wish you could’ve seen them
And I wish I could
Say something good about it
We could’ve lived without it
All that stuff we thought we’d bought
But you bought
And you’re gonna pay for it
DON’T CHANGE THE CLIMATE, CHANGE THE SYSTEM
This is a translation of the beginning of a speech by Hugo Chavez at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 (COP15)…
The representative of Bolivia said the text presented is not democratic or inclusive, and I was going to add, in fact the chair of the previous session the minister said a document was coming – we wanted to ask about the document, well, I don’t think anybody knows about the document – top secret! Now, I’m sure my friend from Bolivia said this – it’s not democratic, it’s not inclusive. Well ladies and gentlemen isn’t that the reality of our world? Are we in a democratic world? Is the world system really inclusive? Do we have anything really democratic and inclusive in the current world system? There’s an imperial dictatorship in this world and we continue to denounce that.
Down with imperial dictatorships and long live the peoples of democracy and equality on this earth. And this is a reflection of this. Exclusions. There is a group of countries who think they are better than us in the south, us in the third world. The underdeveloped, or as Eduardo Galliano said, ‘The ones knocked down by the train’.
So don’t let’s be surprised by this. And we are not. There is no democracy in the world. Here we are once again where we see the world imperial dictatorship.
Two young people came up here and fortunately the guards were very nice to them. They pushed them a little but not much. But there are lots of people outside. They can’t fit in here. Some people – I read about them – were arrested in the Copenhagen streets. I think we need to say hello to all those people out there. Most of them young.
Well, of course they are young. They are concerned, I think rightly, much more than us about the future of the world. Most of us in here are already a bit more advanced in years. And they are much more concerned.
We could say that there’s a ghost lurking. And Karl Marx said, a ghost running through the streets of Copenhagen. And I think that ghost is silent, somewhere in this room, coming along the corridors and underneath. And that ghost is a terrible ghost. Nobody wants to name him or her. It’s capitalism. Capitalism is that ghost. Nobody I don’t think wants to name it. Capitalism.
Out there you hear – I was reading some signs in the streets – I think they are the signs carried by those young people. When I saw those two young people in here I took note of some of these signs. You hear one, for example, is that ‘Don’t change the climate, change the system’.
Don’t change the climate, change the system. I take note of that. Let’s change the system, and then we’ll begin to change the climate and save the world. The destructive model of capitalism is eradicating life.
The other slogan is also one which makes me think, which fits in with the banking crisis, which is still affecting the world. And the way the rich countries of the north helped the bankers, the big banks. I have forgotten the figure but it is astronomical. So save banks. What they are saying in the streets is if the climate was a bank, they would have already have saved it.
I think it’s true. If the climate was a bank, a capitalist bank, one of the big ones, they would have already saved it. The rich governments – I think obama isn’t here yet. He got the Nobel peace prize almost the same day as he sent 30,000 soldiers off to kill some people in Afghanistan. And now he’s coming here with the Nobel peace prize. The President of the United States. United States can produce dollars. Just print them, and they think they’ve saved their banks and the capitalist system.
Well, that’s just a passing comment, but I wanted to say that when I raised my hand to support Brazil, India and others. All the countries in the Bolivarian alliance. Anyway, we didn’t get the floor at that stage, so don’t count those minutes please, Mr. President.
WILD
Open sesame
As if that could make it
As if that could bring me out
I know you’ve been waiting
For the real me
But the real me’s
Never about
See the real me’s
Walking wild
Floating high
With the hills
You could go there
Go and feel it
Make it real for yourself
Wild
I’ve been having
A secret affair
With the air
With the earth
Walk my way
Breathe it in
It’s my love
Fit to burst
See my love
It come easy
Open wide
Pouring out
Nothing special
Universe
Me and her
Wild
