Amused to Death

Doctor doctor what is wrong with me

This supermarket life is getting long

What is the heart life of a color TV

What is the shelf life of a teenage queen

Ooh western woman

Ooh western girl

News hound sniffs the air

When Jessica Hahn goes down

He latches on to that symbol

Of detachment

Attracted by the peeling away of feeling

The celebrity of the abused shell the belle

Ooh western woman

Ooh western girl

Ooh western woman

Ooh western girl

And the children of Melrose

Strut their stuff

Is absolute zero cold enough

And out in the valley warm and clean

The little ones sit by their TV screens

No thoughts to think

No tears to cry

All sucked dry

Down to the very last breath

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

Amused itself to death

It has amused itself to death

Amused itself to death

We watched the tragedy unfold

We did as we were told

We bought and sold

It was the greatest show on earth

But then it was over

We oohed and aahed

We drove our racing cars

We ate our last few jars of caviar

And somewhere out there in the stars

A keen-eyed look out

Spied a flickering light

Our last hurrah

Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows

Grouped around the TV sets

They ran down every lead

They repeated every test

They checked out all the data on their lists

And then the alien anthropologists

Admitted they were still perplexed

But on eliminating ever other reason

For our sad demise

They logged the only explanation left

This species has amused itself to death

No tears to cry no feelings left

This species has amused itself to death

Amused itself to death

Amused itself to death

Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing

At Aras.

Amused itself to death

And and I, when I saw his name I was absolutely transfixed.

It it was as though he was now a human being instead of some sort of

Nightmarish 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.

It was always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself

"Was there something else that I could have done?"

Amused itself to death

I'd rather die, I'd rather die

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

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, that would be a year, nineteen

Eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four