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What Keeps Mankind Alive? Lyrics
You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn, for once, the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive?
What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shriek the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
Should learn, for once, the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shriek the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
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small thing, isn't it "And for once you must try not to shrink the facts"
amazing song, waits' depiction of it is fantastic
@mr093242 Yeah I saw that mistake too. I've found that other lyrics sites identify it as "shirk the facts", though I agree it sounds/looks like "shrink".
@mr093242 Yeah I saw that mistake too. I've found that other lyrics sites identify it as "shirk the facts", though I agree it sounds/looks like "shrink".
This song is from "The Three Penny Opera," a German musical from the 30s. It was written by Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht. It's a great play, incidentally. Some friends of mine put it on a couple years ago. The most popular song from it is "Mack the Knife." "Pirate Jenny" is great, too (listen to Nina Simone's version, though it's nothing like the original). Tom does the song perfectly. Mirah also does a great version of this song.