Great Big World

The summer I was ten
the sun was high, the sky was blue
I stole a magnifying glass
and burned a hole right through my shoe
and playing football on the waste ground
we found a dirty book
We didn’t know that girls could look like that – you just had to take a look.
And at school they got us ready for our tests
We had to try to concentrate
while sunshine blazed across the desks
And at night we knelt before the Holy Void
without knowing what it was
Should we send our prayers to Jesus
or to Santa Claus?
Chorus:
It’s a great big world, and getting bigger
I put a water pistol in my mouth and I
squeezed on the trigger
Tasting overheated plastic on my tongue
And there was no way to understand –
we wouldn’t always be this young
And the future smelled like factories
like there was nothing else to choose
They said: ‘It was good enough for your fathers
so it’ll be good enough for youse.’
Every neighbourhood kid
every aunt and every uncle
watching Elvis Live by Satellite
And The Rumble in the Jungle
CHORUS
And the world looked like a Western
full of vengeance and hate
And hope was just an ice cream van
on the edge of the estate.