Dan Bern - Wasteland lyrics

I saw the best of my generation playing pinball Make-up on, all caked up Looking like some kind of china doll With all of Adolf Hitler's moves down cold As they stood up in front Of a rock and roll band And always 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 IDs outside saloons And the prettiest of all Taking off her clothes in front of men Whose eyes look like they were in some little hick town Near Omaha Watching the police chief Run his car off the side of a bridge And I saw a men with dreams Like the ones I'd had Beg quarters outside the 7-11 Till it got so they didn't affect me anymore Than the mailboxes I'd pa**ed 'Cept that sometimes I'd put somthing 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 and 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 who*e Offering a discount rate And I wondered how Joe Dimaggio felt And I saw dead James Dean's ghost Wandering the sidewalk looking troubled And I wondered how his mama felt I saw signs that said "Headshots 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 But you 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 Every one 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 "Well, 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 Listend to the radio And made all the fancy scenes And said all the right words And wore all the right clothes And 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 And wearing the right clothes And knowing the names of the hip people And I felt more out of touch than ever But I didn't care anymore And I felt you slipping 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 sungla**es And walked around like flies Under magnifyng gla** 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