Amused to Death

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Doctor, doctor, what is wrong with me? This supermarket life is getting long What is the half-life of a color TV? What is the shelf life of a teenage queen? [Refrain] Ooh, Western woman Ooh, Western girl [Verse 2] News hound sniffs the air When Jessica Hahn goes down He latches onto that symbol of detachment Attracted by the peeling way of feeling The celebrity of the abused shell, the belle [Refrain] Ooh, Western woman Ooh, Western girl Ooh, Western woman Ooh, Western girl [Verse 3] The children on Melrose strut their stuff Is absolute zero cold enough? And out in the valley, warm and clean The little ones sit by the TV screen No thoughts to think No tears to cry All sucked dry Down to the very last breath [Verse 4] Bartender, what is wrong with me? Why am I so out of breath? The captain said, "Excuse me, ma'am' This species has amused itself to death" [Bridge] Amused itself to death, it has amused itself to death Amused itself to death [Verse 5] We watched the tragedy unfold We did as we were told, bought and sold It was the greatest show on Earth But then, it was over We oohed and ahhed, we drove our racing cars We ate our last few jars of caviar And somewhere out there in the stars A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering light (Our last hurrah) Our last hurrah And when they found our shadows Grouped 'round the TV sets They ran down every lead They repeated every test They checked out all the data on their list And then, the alien anthropologists Admitted they were still perplexed But on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise They logged the only explanation left This species has amused itself to death (Amused itself to death, amused itself to death) (Amused itself to death, amused itself to death) [Verse 6] No tears to cry No feelings left This species has amused itself to death Amused itself to death (Amused itself to death, amused itself to death) (Amused itself to death, amused itself to death) [Outro] (Amused itself to death) "Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing at Arras" (Amused itself to death) "And, and I... when I saw his name, I was absolutely transfixed It was as though he was now a human being instead of some sort of niightmarish memory of how I had to leave him, all those years ago" (Amused itself to death) "And I felt relieved, and ever since then I've felt happier about it Because always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself 'Was there something else that I could have done?'" (Amused itself to death) "Put me down, I'd rather die. I'd rather die, put me down..." "And that always sort of worried me. And having seen him, and his Name in the register - as you know in the memorials there's a little safe" (Amused itself to death) "There's a register in there with every name - and Seeing his name and his name on the memorial. It sort of lightened my heart, if you like" (Amused itself to death) "When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?" "Ah, when I was eighty-seven. Ah... that would be the year, ninete... eighty-four. Nineteen eighty-four"