The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58482   Message #925905
Posted By: Orac
04-Apr-03 - 04:51 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: I Never Knew (Martin Hall)
Subject: Lyr Add: I NEVER KNEW (Martin Hall)
Here is a song I do sometimes. Its by Martin Hall who used to be in a trio called Jolly Jack as well as solo. I don't know if he is still performing. This song was written at the time of the Kuwait saga but is actually about the apathy we all have to the things happening around us. The second verse seems rather relevant at the moment so I thought I'd post the lyrics here.

I NEVER KNEW
(Martin Hall)

As I ponder all the trouble that besets me left and right
Where to find that extra money, where to book the cheapest flight
There are people out there looking for a box to spend the night in
But I guess they brought it all upon themselves
For how could they be so hapless, why don't they get a job?
If they'd anything about them they'd go out and make a bob
Instead of squandering their lives in the squalor and the rain
Its not my fault, I never knew, I'm not to blame

Chorus
I never knew, I never knew of all the suffering and pain
Never heard the cries of starving children to my shame
Never saw the mushroom cloud, never felt the acid rain
I never knew, I never knew, I never knew

As I sit and watch the evening news it makes me feel quite sad
There are wars and famine everywhere, the world had gone quite mad
And even as I stare our fighters strafe and bomb Baghdad
Trying the kill a man that once we called our friend
But our friend was only money; it was greed that brought us here
For there's billions to be made from selling weapons, peddling fear
And our governments denounce and they are playing age-old games
It wasn't them, they didn't know, they're not to blame

Chorus

There are wide and fertile oceans or so we're often told
But the trawlers over-fish them and the whalers brave the cold
And icy seas to hunt the whale although there's nothing for them there
That can't be made in factories on the shore
In the jungles, on the prairies Mother Nature holds her breath
All the animals should fear us; our expansion means their death
And when they are all gone and recalled only by name
Well, we cry we didn't know, we're not to blame

Chorus

So the factories spew their toxins and pollute the air we breathe
Pump our rivers full of slurry but no punishment receive
For tomorrow never comes, the price to pay will not be ours
If we turn our backs it might just go away
As the forests are depleted and the towns and lakes stagnate
As the ozone just gets thinner will we wait till its too late
To redress the natural balance, contemplate another way
It has to stop it can't go on we mustn't say

Chorus

We never saw the mushroom cloud, never felt the acid rain
We never knew, of course we do, we're all to blame