1973 (Ice cream and a kiss) Words and Music by Paul Snyders - 2006 1973 was the year That I first saw that we were doomed, I saw this placemat in a greasy spoon It said the whales were dying out and they'd be gone real soon. Of course there was wars and oil and gold being dropped But I was eight so that didn't count Or only maybe just a little amount I knew what was happening just enough To hide from searching helicopters. So there's me, age eight, thinking 'bout the whale I'd seen All built up in a huge museum Way down in London town I couldn't get my head around The whole idea It seemed too big for us people to kill it, sounded stranger to kill them all, I hadn't met one, but I couldn't see how we all could do, stuff so dumb You know I still can't figure that one out. I've seen stuff go right since, but more go wrong It's why I scribbled out this stupid song 'cause somewhere, I figure somebody's blue Thinking 'bout this same old shit, well me too So let me share my slice of it, and if you think me rude You just wait, we won't be none of us laughing Truth is, it's too damned late We oughtn't really bother procreate We've run our course, for better or worse This doesn't work, let's stop pretending. Water air and food and shelter Do not belong on a sliding scale with wealth We all fucked up and traded away our health For a shiny trinket and A yoke a joke a job a trap A never ending pile of crap A soul destroying epic scrap For market share for vapid pap Is this really what we think we're here for? We ain't consumers, we are consumed Cut into psychographics and groomed We are the product packaged up in our rooms Hiding from living and sealing our doom Wasting the last of the fruits of the earth to make shinier blinkers to block scarier gloom So thanks a lot what now, you fuckin' jerk? Maintaining my blinkers takes lots of work You better not be pissing me off Unless you got something to say to help Okay let's try a couple Not a one of them simple Every one of them's trouble See if a bit of this sounds like hope to you We got so much stuff, no more and maybe less Got so many folks who all want a share We cannot pretend that a system which make gewgawgs while people starve, makes sense It ain't needed, it makes folks crazy That people should suffer from needing a meal When we on our side of the fence are suffering From being so bored we don't know when to stop We say democracy but we mean make me I ain't helpin', unless my neighbour has to too. So everybody keeps on shitting in their garden Nobody wants to be the sucker who bothered to try We gotta do it before we're told to Or we'll be made to do it all in time If we don't step up and be good voluntarily We won't like the guys who run things after the crash Trust me on this one A brick wall up ahead and we keep pouring on gas Only a moron would think we won't crash The question is, do you want to know how to help 'Cause you can start by buying us time and Please start now, don't wait for some kind of fraud Strutting and posing like an imbecile god To goad your virtue with a cattle prod There's no time, to sit around and whine There ain't that much, of anything else either, so see what you can do, to do away with what you can do so much better off without, besides You'd be surprised, by the number of times that you can win a simple moment of peace Alone with the satisfaction of doing something usually done for you by a stupid machine Cook a meal, you'll need to know how soon. Grow a crop, you'll need to know that too Make a friend who you never agree with Learn to find those places where everyone meets We got a little while to practise humanity light As in footprint attitude spirit and fight We can train to be useful and happy and free Or we can sulk and hide and bitch and live miserably I know the assholes, who want to tell us all what to do Have written me off, but got their eyeballs on you Nazi lockstep ain't so hard to pull off As long as the questions come after the bluff But hey, it's worth it to try anyway We all gotta die some day And you never can tell for sure What the things that you do End up doing out there in the world You couldn't have picked a worse time But I'm glad that you're a friend of mine If we're out on the edge of the proverbial cliff I say fuck the cherry blossoms I want a scoop of ice cream and a kiss So we're doomed - so what? was there ever a chance with this whole free will thing - we act more like ants So if we can't choose to put it back in our pants I say we savour every moment while we have, while we can Don't worry there will be TV in hell It's here where we're wasting our time with the sell The ways that we spend our days will tell You got yourself a honeysuckle - give 'er a smell Notice life and notice those noticing Find ways to reach out from your own thing Cast wide to find ways to pass the good stuff on And write and sing and learn new songs We can do this the brave way or we can be slaves But we're gonna go through it either way It's our bill to pay, it's late in the day They're waiting for us all to leave To close the place up tight, for good Do we stand up now or do we make them goose us? Do we learn to do for ourselves or do we beg? when the good-guys get right down to picking their teams Is there something we can do, to help them choose us? But hey, it's worth it to try anyway We all gotta die some day And you never can tell for sure What the things that you do End up doing out there in the world You couldn't have picked a worse time But I'm glad that you're a friend of mine If we're out on the edge of the proverbial cliff I say fuck the cherry blossoms I want a scoop of Ice cream and a kiss I really mean it A scoop of ice cream and a kiss
