Laurie Anderson - Another Day In America lyrics

And so finally here we are
At the beginning of a whole new era
The start of a brand new world and now what?
How do we start? How do we begin again?

There are some things you can simply look up
Such as:
The size of Greenland, the dates of the
Famous 19th century rubber
Wars, Persian adjectives
The composition of snow
And other things you just have to guess at

And then again today's the day and those were
The days and now these are the
Days and now the clock
Points histrionically to
Noon some new kind of north
And so which way do we go?
What are days for? To wake us up
To put between the endless nights
And by the way
Here's my theory of punctuation:
Instead of a period at the
End of each sentence
There should be a tiny clock
That shows you how
Long it took you to write that sentence

And another way to look at time is this:
There was an old married couple and
They had always hated each
Other, never been able to stand
The sight of each other
Really and when they were in their nineties
They finally got divorced and people said
"Why did you wait so long?
Why didn't you do this a whole
Lot earlier?" And they said "Well
We wanted to wait until the children died"

Ah, America and yes
That will be America a whole
New place just waiting to
Happen broken-up parking lots
Rotten dumps, speedballs, accidents
And hesitations, things left
Behind styrofoam, computer chips

And Jim and John, oh, they
Were there, and Carol
Too her hair pinned up
In that weird beehive way she loved
So much, and Greg and Phil
Moving at the pace of summer
And Uncle Al, who screamed all
Night in the attic yes
Something happened to him in
The war, they said, over in France, and
France had become something
They never mentioned, something dangerous

Yeah, some were sad to see those days
Disappear the flea markets and their smells
The war all the old belongings strewn
Out on the sidewalks
Mildewed clothes and old resentments
And ragged record jackets

And ah, these days oh, these days
What are days for? To wake us up
To put between the endless nights

And meanwhile all over town
Checks are bouncing and
Accounts are being automatically closed
Passwords are expiring
And everyone's counting and
Comparing and predicting:
Will it be the best of times, will
It be the worst of times
Or will it just be another
One of those times?

Show of hands, please

And ah, this world, which
Like Kierkegaard said
Can only be understood when
Lived backwards which would
Entail an incredible amount of
Planning and confusion
And then there are those
Big questions always in
The back of your mind things like:
Are those two people over there
Actually my real parents?
Should I get a second Prius?

And you
You who can be silent in four languages:
Your silence will be considered your consent

Oh but those were the days before the
Audience, and what the audience wanted
And what the audience said it wanted

And you know the reason I
Really love the stars is
That we cannot hurt them we can't burn them
Or melt them or make them
Overflow we can't flood
Them or blow them up or burn them out
But we are reaching for them
We are reaching for them

Some say our empire is passing
As all empires do
And others haven't a clue what time it is or
Where it goes or even where the clock is

And oh, the majesty of dreams an
Unstoppable train different
Colored wonderlands
Freedom of speech and sex with strangers

Dear old God: May I call you old?
And may I ask: Who are these people?

Ah, America we saw it we
Tipped it over, and then
We sold it these are the things
I whisper softly to my dolls
Those heartless little
Thugs dressed in calico kilts
And jaunty hats
And their perpetual white toothy smiles

And oh, my brothers and oh
My sisters what are days for?
Days are where we live they flow and
Then they flow they come, they fade
They go and they go no way to know exactly
When they start or when their time is up

Oh, another day, another dime
Another day in America
Another day, another dollar
Another day in America

And all my brothers and all
My long lost sisters how do we begin again?
How do we begin?