Wasteland (Album Version)

Wasteland (Album Version) - Dan Bern

I saw the best of my

Generation playing pinball

Maked up and caked up

And looking like some

Kind of china doll

With all of Adolf Hitler's moves down cold

As they stood up in front

Of a Rock and Roll band

And always moving

Upward and ever upward

To this gentle golden promised land

With the smartest of them all

Moonlighting as a word processor

And the strongest of them all

Checking IDs outside saloons

And the prettiest of

All taking off her clothes

In front of men whose eyes look like

They were in some little hick town

Near Omaha watching the police chief

Run his car off the side of a bridge

I saw men with dreams

Like the ones I'd had

Beg quarters outside the Seven-Eleven

Till it got so they didn't affect me anymore

Than the mailboxes I'd passed

'Cept that sometimes

I'd put somthing in the mailbox

I'd had the wind at my back

Now I felt it cold in my face

And for an awful long time now

You were the only one

Who ever called me late at night

And I really never noticed

Till after you stopped calling

And the emptiness

Silence got so heavy

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the promised land

Broken up in Disneyland

Broken up in the plastic land

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

I saw dead Marilyn Monroe

Strung up on every

Street corner in Hollywood

Like some two bit

Whore offering a discount rate

And I wondered how Joe Dimaggio felt

I saw dead James Dean's ghost

Wandering the sidewalk looking troubled

And I wondered how his mama felt

I saw signs that said

"Headshots done for cheap"

Signs that said "Extras wanted top dollars paid"

Signs for 'Haircuts' and signs for 'Manicures'

And signs for "Tanning salons"

And signs for 'Wardrobe specialists

Signs for "Cosmetic surgery'

And signs for 'Assertiveness training'

And I stopped to read them all

And every single block

Looked like every single block

Looked like every single

Block looked like every single block

But she kept driving

'Cause everyone else kept driving

And 'cause gridlock is evil and

Not knowing anywhere is evil

And those who had money looked good

But weren't too happy and

Those who didn't have money

Didn't look so good

And weren't too happy either

And in a city of three million

Two hundred and sixty nine thousand

Nine hundred eighty four

Everyone was lonely

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the promised land

Broken up in Disneyland

Broken up in the plastic land

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

And I watched as everyone

I knew spent their lives

Trying to be watched on stage

Watched on film or listened to on a record

And they thought

"Well maybe that way

I could get a little love out of this life"

And I watched as the best of my generation

Abandoned their dreams and

Settled for making a little money

I watched TV read the papers

Listend to the radio

And made all the fancy scenes

And said all the right words

And wore all the right clothes

And knew the names of the hip people

But I still felt out of touch

So I stopped watching TV

And reading the papers and

Listening to the radio

And making the fancy scenes

And saying the right words

And wearing the right clothes

And knowing the names of the hip people

And I felt more out of touch

Than ever but I didn't care anymore

And I felt you slipping away and

I felt myself slipping from you

And I wanted more than anything else

For it to rain for one whole day like it used to

But all there ever was was sun

Relentless sun hot beating sun

And everyone wore their sunglasses

And walked around like

Flies under magnifying glass

With their eyes removed

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the promised land

Broken up in Disneyland

Broken up in the plastic land

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland