Monologue

I don't have to tell you things are bad

Everybody knows things are bad

It's a depression

Everybody's out of work

Or scared of losing their job

The dollar buys a nickel's worth

Banks are going bust

Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter

Punks are running wild in the street

And there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do

And there's no end to it

We know

The air is unfit to breathe

And our food is unfit to eat

And we sit watching our TVs

While some local newscaster tells us

That today we had fifteen homicides

And sixty-three violent crimes

As if that's the way it's supposed to be

We all know things are bad

Worse than bad

They're crazy

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy

So we don't go out any more

We sit in the house

And slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller

And all we say is

Please

At least leave us alone in our living rooms

Let me have my toaster and my TV

And my steel-belted radials

And I won't say anything

Just leave us alone

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest

I don't want you to riot

I don't want you to write to your Congressman

Because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write

I don't know what to do about the depression

And the inflation

And the Russians

And the crime in the street

All I know is that first

You've got to get mad

You've gotta say

I'm a human being, goddammit

My life has value

I want you to get up now

I want all of you

To get up out of your chairs

I want you to get up right now

And go to the window, open it

And stick your head out and yell

I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! (x2)

The world we're living in is getting smaller

And all we say is

Please

At least leave us alone in our living rooms

Let me have my toaster and my TV

And my steel-belted radials

And I won't say anything

Just leave us alone

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest

I don't want you to riot

I don't want you to write to your Congressman

Because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write

I don't know what to do about the depression

And the inflation

And the Russians

And the crime in the street

All I know is that first

You've got to get mad

You've gotta say

I'm a human being, goddammit

My life has value!

I want you to get up now

I want all of you

To get up out of your chairs

I want you to get up right now

And go to the window, open it

And stick your head out and yell

I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!