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Bovine Spungiform Economics Lyrics
The maternity ward
Where I was born
Was knocked down in the first gulf war
To build an airport
For housing Allied steel,
For upholding ideals,
Like a stable petroleum price
And consumer choice.
Oh Lord won't you buy me
Any kind of car- I've walked so far.
Our few remaining parks
Are being smothered by cinemas
And the requisite stock of carparks
(Which aren't the same).
And our children will rejoice
In unbridled freedom of choice
Of superstores and different brands of
Cultural decay.
You only get out what you put in
And all that we pay is credence sincere
At the altars of competition and desire
All choice and no need
Makes Jack a dull economist
They're selling adspace on
The subway walls,
And privatizing the tenemant halls-
Prophet and cause superseded
By profit and loss.
They'd have Marshall's mustacioed face
Staring down from every public place
If they taught honest history in school
And if people knew who he was.
Oh Lord won't you buy me
Any kind of car- I've walked so very
Far away from where I began.
Where I was born
Was knocked down in the first gulf war
To build an airport
For housing Allied steel,
For upholding ideals,
Like a stable petroleum price
And consumer choice.
Oh Lord won't you buy me
Any kind of car- I've walked so far.
Our few remaining parks
Are being smothered by cinemas
And the requisite stock of carparks
(Which aren't the same).
And our children will rejoice
In unbridled freedom of choice
Of superstores and different brands of
Cultural decay.
You only get out what you put in
And all that we pay is credence sincere
At the altars of competition and desire
All choice and no need
Makes Jack a dull economist
They're selling adspace on
The subway walls,
And privatizing the tenemant halls-
Prophet and cause superseded
By profit and loss.
They'd have Marshall's mustacioed face
Staring down from every public place
If they taught honest history in school
And if people knew who he was.
Oh Lord won't you buy me
Any kind of car- I've walked so very
Far away from where I began.
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
"The maternity ward..." - Frank was born in Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, which was used during the First Gulf War to launch attacks on Iraq, etc. Frank obviously links this war to Western economic concerns ("Like a stable petroleum price").
He goes on to talk about how these economic concerns are altering the physical landscape, and points out the irony in the name "carpark" ("the requisite stock of carparks [which aren't the same]").
He links it to "cultural decay" and mocks the "freedom of choice" that Capitalism offers, implying that none of the choices are positive ones, and also that this emphasis on choice avoids the fundamental nature of human life and the economy; "all choice and no need makes Jack a dull economist".
He talks about the increasing privatisation of public space, feeding Capitalism further, and opening up new domains to it, at the expense of principles ("Prophet and cause superceded by profit and loss")
The "Marshall's mustachioed face" line refers to Alfred Marshall, an economist who (to quote wikipedia) "extended economics away from its classical focus on the market economy and instead popularized it as a study of human behavior". [The fact that I had to look him up is amusing in itself due to the line "and if people knew who he was"]
Frank tries to point out that the economic history and the way that Capitalism has developed have shaped our entire world, and yet it is ignored, downplayed, or even misrepresented ("if they taught honest history in school")