[See post to listen to audio]

Walking out on 14th St the hollow people know
The secret bargain that the city seeks to make
The city’s hunger is a ghost that’s growing stronger
With every stolen mouthful that it takes
Manhattan is an island of privateers and pirates
The sunken treasure of a rich and stinking ship
I ride the tunnels with the rest you know I try my best
To fight the panic as the stitches start to rip

And the rats are running in the subway
The fat cats are choking on the cream
The roaches are creeping in the plumbing
And the dinosaurs are drinking gasoline

Future archaeologists will dive off the New Jersey coast
And say here lies Atlantis in a dream
They’ll fill their boots with artifacts with post millennium bric-a-brac
From Times Square tourist traps amid the darkened screens
The swamp remembers every pool of stagnant water
These granite bones remember dynamite
The demons under old Manhattan pent up in the subway
Are screaming for another sacrifice

And the rats are running in the subway
The fat cats are choking on the cream
The roaches are creeping in the plumbing
And the dinosaurs are drinking gasoline

The cruelest privilege of all is to ignore the necks
You step on as you clamber up the stairs
And as the waters rise to have dry feet and sympathize
With all the drowning people who were there
The theatre of America is looking for a superstar
To sell the headline news on CNN
They’re waiting for the season of the hurricane disease
As all the madness of the summer starts again

And the rats are running in the subway
The fat cats are choking on the cream
The roaches are creeping in the plumbing
And the dinosaurs are drinking gasoline

[See post to listen to audio]

Poverty’s a crime in the poorhouse
And the punishment is life
The lucky ones work in the slaughterhouse
And the rest go under the knife
Hunger is a crime in the madhouse
Where the gutters are running with fat
Liberty depends on consumption
Is there anything wrong with that

Skin and bone, skin and bone, skin and bone
And you’re very very far from home, skin and bone

The wealthy starve for beauty
And the penniless starve for cash
So you sell yourself into slavery
And the money turns straight to ash
When the shark stops moving it dies
So we never more may sleep
We must keep on feeding the fires
That burn in the belly of the beast

The beggars bring the feast
Pile it high til the table groans
But it stinks of graft and corruption
We will fast to liberate our souls
Pile your hopes on a handcart
Cash ‘em in for nickels and dimes
Til your muscles ache from stooping
To get your hands down in the grime

[See post to listen to audio]

Come away with me and we’ll have ourselves a life in the new world city
Trade this stubborn farmland for a million neon nights in the new world city
We’ll build a house on a piece of torn up land
Made of board and tin with our own bare hands
In the new world city

Each early morning hopeful souls line up in the new world city
Sweat our hearts out fill a rich man’s cup in the new world city
Break our backs building monuments to the sky
Catch our fingers in the teeth of the machinery
In the new world city

La la la la, le la le la
La la la la, le la le la
La la la la, in the new world city

We’ll rule the six square feet that we can sleep upon in the new world city
We’ll look away while the violence carries on in the new world city
Make a new religion out of rusted cars
Our televisions and our hollow stars
In the new world city

[chorus][instrumental]

Hold on to each other for dear life we’re hanging on in the new world city
So very precious though we’re only worth a song in the new world city
Try to keep breathing as we watch the waters rise
Run harder and faster and race for the prize
We rats are never gonna break this wheel
These illusions it’s all for real
In the new world city

In London, Calcutta, Manhattan, LA
In Beijing and Moscow, Mexico, Bombay
Chicago, Jakarta, and Cape Town, Baghdad
In Cairo, Buenos Aries, in Bangkok, Tehran
In the new world

[See post to listen to audio]

You and me and a bottle of wine
A summer’s evening by the serpentine
Lying still while the world goes by
Around and around and around

You and me and a bottle of wine
A recipe for a beautiful time
And all the people in their feathers fine
Strut around and around and around

Walked out on one too many rainy days
Spent too many summer days in the shade
Well you do what you have to that’s how life is made
But love can happen best of all on ssunny days
So whaddya say

You and me and a bottle of wine
I’ll cook up a plausible alibi
You sing to the fishes and I’ll sing to the sky
As it goes around and around and around

It seems funny but the sun don’t care
What those people get up to down there
He don’t know if you’re happy he don’t care what’s on your mind
So let the blues belong to the sky
And let’s fly

You and me and a bottle of wine
If you’re late I’ll find a tree to climb
I can’t wait because I got you on my mind
You go around and around and around

You and me and a bottle of wine
Sides hurt from laughing and I feel so fine
Take my hand and we’ll dance as the world
Spins around and around and around

And the people look funny as they rush run hurry
I wonder if none of them know
That they could pick a location by the lake
To take a break and bring a friend to share a bottle that goes down slow

You and me and a bottle of wine
A summer’s evening by the serpentine
Lying still while the world goes by
Around and around and around

You and me and a bottle of wine
A recipe for a beautiful time
Lying still while the world goes by
Around and around and around
Around and around and around
And around and around and around and around and around

[See post to listen to audio]

I get dizzy counting the days
I’ve been living my life in a daydream
Time ticking along
I didn’t want to listen to the radio or watch the TV
I didn’t want to hear about
All these bitter things out there in the world

Words and deceit and metal that shines
Like a hook in the back of the life of your mind
So hard to fight, so easy to close your eyes
Roll over dreamer slip and away

Dreamer dream on if you can
I don’t know what the future holds
But I hope your sleep is sweet
And you know some peace in your soul
Everyone should have a little peace of mind

Underneath your wheels
Or maybe even beneath your feet
Something like the rhythm of a dynamo
A machine or a drum going on and on
Everything you do and all you are
Is connected to the beating heart
Of this dream this machine all our lives

And you know it’s like the coins in my pockets and the air in my lungs
Are the weight and the water that’s dragging me down
Dreamers and me in the sparkling under the sea
Deep into the ocean slip and away

Dreamer dream on for a little while
I don’t know what the future holds
But I hope your sleep is sweet
And you know some peace in your soul
Everyone could use a little peace of mind
I could use
I could use some peace of mind

(Instrumental)

Everyone should have a little peace of mind

When you wake in confusion
And you see right through the illusion
That your life is a little thing
That you’re not a part of the mess we’re in
Pressure drops and your mind explodes
With the pressure of what you know
That sound you hear it’s not the bomb
It’s just your atoms turning on
And lighting up
As your world comes tumbling down

Dreamer dream on if you can
I don’t know what the story holds
But I hope your sleep is sweet
And you know some peace in your soul
Everyone could use a little peace of mind