Laurie Anderson - So Happy Birthday lyrics

In our country, you're free and so you're
Born and so they say, "You're free
" so happy birthday and even if you were born
To lose -even if you were a complete
Wreck when you were born-
You might still grow
Up to be president because you're free

Today
You might be an average citizen a civilian
A pedestrian but tomorrow you might be
Elected to some unexpected office
-or sell your
Novel and suddenly become famous or
You could get run over by a truck
And your picture could get into the
Papers that way because you're free and
Anything might happen so happy birthday

Gee! All those lights and all those screens!
The New York Experience is
Mind-boggling I don't
Think I've ever seen that
Many screens and I'll
Probably come again it was really amazing
Mind-boggling

You're walking and you don't always realize
It but you're always falling at
The same time with each step you
Fall forward over and over
You're falling and then
Catching yourself from
Falling and this is how
You can be walking and falling
At the same time

Look! Over there! It's a real
Dog and it's really talking

I wanted you and I was looking for
You but I couldn't find you i
Wanted you and I was looking for you
All day but I couldn't find you
JOE: Well, I paid my money
And I've got this funny feeling that
Somehow- you know -it's not
What I paid my money for i mean I paid my
Money and I just don't think
This is what I paid
My money- you know -what I paid my money for

No one has ever looked at
Me like this before no one
Has ever stared at me for so
Long like this this is
The first time anyone has ever looked
At me like this stared at
Me like this for such a long time for so long

Well
He didn't know what to do so he just decided
To watch the government and
See what the government
Was doing and then kind of scale it down
To size -and run his life that way

She said the hardest thing to teach her
Three-year-old kid was what was alive and
What wasn't the phone rings and she holds
It out to her kid and says
"It's Grandma talk to Grandma"
But she's holding a piece of plastic and the
Kid says to herself:
"Wait a minute is the phone alive? Is the
TV alive? What about that radio?
What is alive in this room and what doesn't
Have life?" Unfortunately
She doesn't know how to ask these questions

We were in a large room full
Of people all kinds and they
Had arrived at the same time and
They were all free and they
Were all asking themselves the same question:
What is behind that curtain? They
Were all free and they were all
Wondering what would happen next

This is the time and this
Is the record of the time