This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Great Wall of China
It's so big it's seen from outer space
Put there to keep starving neighbors
Locked outside the gates
What's changed today?
Empires hoard more than they need
And peasants threaten our comfort
We'll build a Great Wall around our power
Build a Great Wall around our power
Bankrupt L.A.'s streetcar line
So people pay more to drive
Plant strategic freeways
To divide neighborhoods by color lines
We'd rather pay for riot squds
Than pump your ghetto back to life
We'll let your schools decay on purpose
To build a Great Wall around our power
Another Great Wall around our power
Warlords in grey suits
Take a different route to work each day
Second-hand green berets
Form the companies' private armies.
We'll take all your gold
BUt won't teach reading or feed your poor
The League of Gentleman
Would rather feed guns to puppet dictators
There's too many people in our world
And refugees are expensive
When they trickled down onto our soil
We hunt them and arrest them
Classify them insane
And put them back on the next plane
To the waiting arms
Of the death squads they fled
We've built a Great Wall around our power
Economic Great Wall around our power
Worldwide Great Wall around our power
Give us your poor
Your tired and your weak
We'll send 'em right back
To their certain death.
It's so big it's seen from outer space
Put there to keep starving neighbors
Locked outside the gates
What's changed today?
Empires hoard more than they need
And peasants threaten our comfort
We'll build a Great Wall around our power
Build a Great Wall around our power
Bankrupt L.A.'s streetcar line
So people pay more to drive
Plant strategic freeways
To divide neighborhoods by color lines
We'd rather pay for riot squds
Than pump your ghetto back to life
We'll let your schools decay on purpose
To build a Great Wall around our power
Another Great Wall around our power
Warlords in grey suits
Take a different route to work each day
Second-hand green berets
Form the companies' private armies.
We'll take all your gold
BUt won't teach reading or feed your poor
The League of Gentleman
Would rather feed guns to puppet dictators
There's too many people in our world
And refugees are expensive
When they trickled down onto our soil
We hunt them and arrest them
Classify them insane
And put them back on the next plane
To the waiting arms
Of the death squads they fled
We've built a Great Wall around our power
Economic Great Wall around our power
Worldwide Great Wall around our power
Give us your poor
Your tired and your weak
We'll send 'em right back
To their certain death.
Lyrics submitted by Ice
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hmm this song can be related in the present day as the USA creating grat walls around their power so inmigrants get fucked up and abusen on the mexican desert and stuff like that