The Bureaucracy Song
words by Stephen Barling
music by Stuart Holme, Stephen Barling and Warren Jobe

I'm standing on a pier with a gun in my hand.
I find I've killed so many but still I don't understand
when something blue in G occurs to me and desparately
I hum the first few bars of my favorite Billy Holliday tune
when all of a sudden here comes this cop, says I gotta stop
singing ain't allowed on the pier

Bureaucracy I know

I check into a hotel or at least I try
but I can't get nowhere with this greasy little foreign guy.
It seems he needs a little credit to make me amenable - that's respectable
I've got a Visa card so I figure I am set
turns out the color of my skin means more than any of my plastic credit

Bureaucracy I know

Somebody baked me a birthday cake, included a file and spoon
I dug and dug and dug but I might as well been digging my own tomb.
Somebody's watching me, in a Big Brother democracy
where tax is paid for courtesy the paper chase is chasing me

Bureaucracy I know

When I am old and I am weak
and I can hardly think not to mention speak,
I hope somebody pays me back
when I don't get no fucking Social Security check
but I doubt it

Bureaucracy I know

© 1987 GNILSONGS

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