The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Us living as we do upside down
And the new word to have is revolution
People don't even want to hear the preacher
Spill or spiel because God's whole card has been thoroughly piqued
And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey
The youngsters who were programmed to continue
Fucking up woke up one night digging
Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys
America stripped for bed and we had not all yet closed our eyes
The signs of truth were tattooed across her often entered vagina
We learned to our amazement untold tale of scandal
Two long centuries buried in the musty vault
Hosed down daily with a gagging perfume
America was a bastard, the illegitimate daughter of the mother country
Whose legs were then spread around the world
And a rapist known as freedom, free-doom
Democracy, liberty, and justice were revolutionary code names that preceded
The bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling
In the mother country's crotch
What does Webster say about soul?
All I want is a good home and a wife
And a children and some food to feed them every night
After all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
And the new word to have is revolution
People don't even want to hear the preacher
Spill or spiel because God's whole card has been thoroughly piqued
And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey
The youngsters who were programmed to continue
Fucking up woke up one night digging
Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys
America stripped for bed and we had not all yet closed our eyes
The signs of truth were tattooed across her often entered vagina
We learned to our amazement untold tale of scandal
Two long centuries buried in the musty vault
Hosed down daily with a gagging perfume
America was a bastard, the illegitimate daughter of the mother country
Whose legs were then spread around the world
And a rapist known as freedom, free-doom
Democracy, liberty, and justice were revolutionary code names that preceded
The bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling, bubbling
In the mother country's crotch
What does Webster say about soul?
All I want is a good home and a wife
And a children and some food to feed them every night
After all is said and done, build a new route to China if they'll have you
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Lyrics submitted by CrashandBurrn
Who Will Survive In America Lyrics as written by Kanye West Jeff Bhasker
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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rapgenius.com/Gil-scott-heron-comment-1-lyrics (great breakdown of the lyrics)
GSH was brilliant. Note that this was written in 1970. He truly saw where the world was heading. His words become more relevant every day.
I think the image of America/Britain as mother/daughter prostitutes suggests that we've all been trained to whore ourselves out for money. There's an overwhelming sense of consumerist guilt in Kanye's more recent stuff. The video below makes a good argument for how this liberal-democratic ideology ended up getting adopted by and assimilated into capitalism, which is I think one thing that GSH seemed to be afraid of in the original 'comment #1' youtube.com/watch
Also, did anyone actually look up the word "soul" in the dictionary after hearing this? (merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soul)
I think Kanye wants us all to take a step back and really think about our lives. Are we anything more than the sum of our achievements? Why does no one talk about "the soul" anymore?
I don't necessarily think we should jump on the Illuminati/New World Order bandwagon, or become born-again Christians. But we DO need to worship something. And right now we're worshipping things like money, success, sex, drugs, etc. Is this kind of worshipping really making us happier?