We don't send letters anymore There ain't the time or place But a friend of mine wrote something Like a letter yesterday
It was smuggled through my inbox Just this morning, 3AM More impotent than important Let me read it now; verbatim
He says: "I got that same old feeling The one that turns the birds to brutes The sky is like a bad dream And the earth is in cahoots
I don't believe no one no more I don't care what no one says I just want to make the world A much less painful place
We look fonder on the good old days As they drift further away But why if everyone feels so homesick Are they always setting sail?
Cause it's all bad news up there on deck And each headline masks the next I'd just as soon dive in the ocean And forgo the blood and sweat
And forgo all aspiration And just put everyone at odds If idle hands are the Devil's work Then where's the time for Gods? Oh yeah
[Chorus] Why write a letter that you'll never send away (Why won't you) Stay with me, wait and see And all you need know Nobody's perfect and their needs are always stark (Stay with me) Wait you'll see And all you need know Everybody's hurting and their needs are always stark (Stay with me) Stay with me
[Verse 2] And who cares about wars of choice and lands Where states indulge their passions And all the new shoots just jack boot scoot All dissent, out of fashion
Like Fred Astaires at film premieres That is all about them It's stirring stuff, transformative I don't care where they're sent
And they're off kiss-chasing childish dreams Of a privileged masculinity Till they're spent by shock and discharged home To small towns and big cities
And the rest of the type left are dying or dead From just trying to be useful They been handy in the years gone by And they'll be handy in the future
And who cares for their survival And who cares about the yanks Who cares if they get overrun By Chinese nukes and tanks
And who cares about the Holocaust Man we didn't learn nothing there And all it's memory does Is keep the History Channel on air
And who cares about the Vatican Man everybody knows And who's surprised they went and choose A Nazi for a Pope
And who cares about fakes like anarchists Man they never want to dance Let's mambo Mogadishu Give Anarchy a chance
I'm saying life is cruel you know it's true But all sides still try and recruit ya For Shangri-Las as practical As doing a Karma Sutra
[Chorus]
[Verse 3] And who cares if the starving millions Know it's Christmas or your birthday Or what movie stars in Africa or The guy from U2 says
Or all the statesmen never telling lies As truth or Gospel Who cares what's true or false The truth's the world won't go to hospital
But who needs to live forever And who needs the extra miles We won't need bees or seed banks In the Arctic for a while
We play the game to start again Not to better life for all It's the appropriate opiate When the better way's impossible
Some honesty now wouldn't go astray And if not then what's the use We're animals we can't help doing What all animals do
So goodbye my friend I'm hitting send Forgive me talking straigh I'm only trying to make the world A much less painful place