Your wants desires
Needs and wishes
Will be duly noted
Processed filed and cataloged
Labeled and encoded
Turned into sitcom dialog
And advertising slogans

We've got a box to put in your brain
Hard wired for downloading
All the secrets and the mysteries
You've been selfishly withholding

The dreams and hopes
That once were yours
Will now be collected and dispersed
So the first to come with cash to spend
Will be the first one served

We've got a box to put in your brain
Hard wired for downloading
All the secrets and the mysteries
You've been selfishly withholding

Make you think you like to be watched
Displayed on the auction block
Invaded in your own home
Stripped naked on the television
Humiliated in front of millions

We've got a box to put in your brain
Hard wired for downloading
All the secrets and the mysteries
You've been selfishly withholding

We've got a box to put in your brain
We've got a box to put in your brain
We've got a box to put in your brain
We've got a box to put in your brain

Your wants desires
Needs and wishes
Will be duly noted


Lyrics submitted by AgathaKavka

Hard Wired Lyrics as written by Tracy L Chapman Tracy Chapman

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Hard Wired song meanings
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3 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment

    In many ways, this song is a rewriting of a passage from a Wendell Berry poem. That's not to say that this song isn't amazing, because it is. A portion of the poem pasted below:

    “Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.

    And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.

    When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it."

    meatycheesyboyon March 06, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song speaks of brainwashing of big business, materialism, and the media... Media and big business find out what we supposedly like and/or want... They repackage it as a NEED and sell it back to us for money.

    tell us what we "want" until we believe it ourselves.

    chungjikon May 05, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    sounds something like reality tv

    halfaliveon October 07, 2005   Link

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