Wasteland

I saw the best of my generation playing pinball

Maked up, and caked up and looking like some kind of china doll

With all of Adolf Hitler's moves down cold

As he stood up in front of a rock and roll band

And I was moving upward and ever upward

To this gentle golden promised land

With the smartest of them all moonlighting as a word processor

And the strongest of them all checking ID's outside the saloon

And the prettiest of them all taking off her clothes

In front of men whose eyes looked like they were in some

Little hick town near Omaha watching the police cheif

Run his car off the side of a bridge.

I saw men with dreams like the ones I'd had

Beg for quarters outside the Seven-Eleven

Till it got so they didn't affect me anymore

Than the mailboxes I'd passed up and then sometimes

I'd put something in the mailbox.

I'd had the wind at my back now I felt it cold in my face

And for an awful long time now you were the only one who ever

Called me late at night and I really never noticed till after

You stopped calling and the emptiness silence got so heavy.



Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the promised land

Broken up in Disneyland, broken up in the plastic land

Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland



I saw dead Marilyn Monroe strung up on every street corner

In Hollywood like some two bit whore offering a discount rate

And I wondered how Joe DiMaggio felt.

I saw dead James Dean's ghost wandering the sidewalk

Looking troubled and I wondered how his mama felt.

I saw signs that said head shots done for cheap

Signs that said extras wanted top dollars paid

Signs for haircuts, signs for manicures and

Signs for tanning salons and signs for wardrobe specialists

Signs for cosmetic surgery and signs for assertiveness training

And I stopped to read them all

And every single block, looked like every single block

Looked like every single block, looked like every single block

Looked like every single block, but we kept driving

Cause everyone else kept driving and cause gridlock

Is evil and not knowing your way is evil

And those that had money looked good but weren't too happy

And those who didn't have money didn't look so good

And weren't too happy either

And in a city of three million two-hundred and sixty-nine thousand

nine-hundred eighty-four

Everyone was lonely



Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the promised land,

Broken up in Disneyland, broken up in the plastic land,

Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland,

Broken up in the wasteland





And I watched as everyone I knew spent their lives

Trying to be watched on stage watched on film

Or listened to on a record and they thought, "Maybe

That way I could get a little love out of this life"

And I watched as the best of my generation abandoned their dreams

And settled for making a little money

I watched TV, read the papers, listened to the radio

And made all the fancy scenes and said all the right words

And wore all the right clothes, knew the names of the hip people

But I still felt out of touch so I stopped watching TV

And reading the papers and listening to the radio

And making the fancy scenes and saying the right words

Wearing the right clothes and knowing the names of the hip people

And I felt more out of touch than ever, oh but I didn't care anymore.

And I felt you slip away and I felt myself slipping from you

And I wanted more than anything else for it to rain for one

Whole day like it used to but all there ever was was sun,

Relentless sun, hot beating sun and everyone wore their

Sunglasses and walked around like flies under a magnifyng glass

With their eyes removed



Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the promised land

Broken up in Disneyland, broken up in the plastic land

Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland, Broken up in the wasteland

Broken up in the wasteland







****************************************************************************

***