Gil Scott-Heron - Re-Ron lyrics

Ah yes, they're off and running again
The campaign trail
And doesn't he look like himself?
Back in the saddle again

Roy Rogers and Buck Rogers
Rutherford B hayes and Gabby Hayes
Marlon Perkins and Carl Perkins

In the dead of night we've seen it all:
Boy George in drag?
Or was Maggie Thatcher RayGun in drag?
Maggie and Jiggs, what a gig they got
That's the big problem
It's a Re-Ron, it's like Geritol
It's Jerry Mahoney and off
The bleepin' wall
He's terrorized and jeopardized
And severed ties and sent our spies
To plant them mines and promoted lies
All for the bottom line
We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before

Yes but there he is running again
Re-running re-ronning it's a Re-Ron
A Re-Ron as predicted before the
World-wide threat was inflicted
All those recent damages
All those recent nerve changes
Re-freezing the Cold War and lighting a
Fire under the hot one
Banging on the war drums
We're listening to the rhythm ah, rhythm ah
Rhythm ah come for me

It's a Re-Ron, Milton Berle
It's the Duke of Wayne and the Duke of Earl
Orson Welles doing War of the Worlds
It's the Hardy Boys and Georgy Girl
It's a Re-Ron, a corruption piece
With Raymond Donovan and Edwin Meese
It's a Re-Ron, it's the Latin Plan
Here's our star - Nacho Man!

We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before
It's beyond reel-to reel and
Shogun to RayGun
And no-one has been psyched by
The cosmetic set changes
And the minimal shuffling of the deck
Of the cast of characters

Attila the Haig transformed into Peanuts
Called Schultz up on Capitol Hill
A dead ringer for the Cowardly Lion
From The Wizard of Oz
And we keep expecting to hear him say:
"We're off to see the Arabs
Off to see the Arabs off to see the Arabs"

Or just off and up the yellow brick road
Another war drummer from the Cap
Weinberger school of arms-pushing overkill
And the Henry Kissinger Peace Academy

We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before

And through it all we closed
Our eyes, didn't we, at 33 and 1
3 going down for the third time
Under the 3rd degree
Watching a third of all our fellow Americans
Breaking their backs for
Third-class citizenship
Taking a third less home on
Payday because of wild inflation
While thirty years after
Segregation was tried
And banished from the nation
Here it comes again: Discrimination!
And the world watching our reaction
To the 3rd World
Because the stakes are the Third World War
It's the neutron bomb for Lebanon
He's the gladiator invader of Grenada!
It's millions more for El Salvador
And he's up to his
‘keisters' with the Sandinistas!
Would we take Fritz without Grit's?
We'd take Fritz the Cat
Would we take Jesse Jackson?
Hell, we'd take Michael Jackson!
We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before

A Re-Ron, the late late show
A black-and-white flick from ages ago
A Re-Ron, the late late show
Ain't we seen this film somewhere before?

It's a Re-Ron, the late late show
A black-and-white flick from ages ago
A Re-Ron, the late late show
Ain't we seen this film somewhere before?

We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before

And then there's the matter
Of stage presence
My doesn't he look like himself?
A Re-Ron, doesn't he look like himself?

The face never changes, nor political stance
He's constantly smiling, a Greek comedy mask
So cool - roll the camera
The hair's in place
The same old tales with the same clichés
It's a Re-Ron, a time machine
Stuck in reverse and filming what he sees
Twenty years gone with the point of a gun
To hell with reality, places everyone!
It's a Re-Ron, the late late show
Starring Curly the RayGun, Larry and Moe
It's a Re-Ron, nostalgia gets torn
Mom and apple pie and "No place like home"
Leave It To Beaver and The Twilight Zone
Can't you face it goddamnit
Yesterday's gone!

We don't need no Re-Ron
We don't need no Re-Ron, you know
We don't need no Re-Ron
We've seen all the Re-Rons before

It's a rerun, déjà vu
There's War Games like Captain Kangaroo
No matter the scenery, no matter the score
Dropping out was copping out
We heard it before

A Re-Ron, the late late show
A black-and-white flick from ages ago
A migraine headache that you had before
Like a Saturday morning cartoon show

It's a Re-Ron, the late late show
A black-and-white flick from ages ago
A Re-Ron, the late late show
Cinematic garbaggio

A Re-Ron, the late late show
A black-and-white flick from ages ago
A Re-Ron, the late late show hey baby
Ain't we seen this somewhere before?

A Re-Ron, the Late Late Show
I swear I seen this somewhere before

A Re-Ron, a Re-Ron, A Re-Ron
No Re-Ron, No Re-Ron no Re-Ron