The Future's Not What It Used To Be

Well outside on the street at 5am you know the world has a different face,

And at dawn in the park as the sunbeams break, the drunks sing amazing grace

While the ladies of the night take flight as a big bright light comes crashing down,

You and I put the world to rights, in this forgotten little part of town.

Well I heard that they say that the traffic wardens dances dick van Dyke does

Throwing shapes around parking meters, to adored rapturous applause,

Singing 5 part harmonies and jumping over cars while others dare to sleep,

With this city is my playground, yeah my circus is my street.

Singing now, woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light

Woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light.

When they came to collect the names of the lads who want to sign up for the army

They said they wanna grow up to be a G, gave up on trying be like dad the sparky

Why run around 360, like a dog chasing his tail

Or the schoolgirls dressed like hookers, the hookers dressed like schoolgirls

Singing now, woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light

Woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light.

Killing and drilling, well it's all they understand,

In the Middle East and Afghanistan,

They fight over turf, they fight over land,

If you give them a ting-a-ling,

While their trigger finger lingers,

With the second gun slingers,

They fight over that,

There's no unity, just to you and and me

Trying to keep our head above the lunacy,

It's just the way we're living,

And we will never give in,

To this -ism schism prison

That all men and women live in.

They war over guns, they war over god,

War over land and they war over drugs,

They war, they war, they war over love,

War over which god watches from above,

They war over oil, they war over race,

Some of them are warring just to save face,

They war, they war, they war over debt,

If it's a war they want, it's a war they'll get.

Singing now, woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light

Woah the future's not what it used to be

So will the last one out please turn off the light, turn off the light.