Momus - I Was A Maoist Intellectual lyrics

I was a Maoist intellectual
In the music industry
I always knew that I could
Seize the world's imagination
And show the possibilities for transformation
I saw a nation in decay, but also a solution:
Permanent cultural revolution
Whenever I played my protest songs
The press applauded me
Rolled out the red carpet, parted the Red Sea
But the petit bourgeois
Philistines stayed away
They preferred their artists to
Have nothing to say

How did I pass my time on
Earth? Now it can be revealed:
I was a Maoist intellectual
In the entertainment field

I showed the people how they lived
And told them it was bad
Showed them the insanity
Inside the bureaucrat
And the archetypes and stereotypes that
Were my stock in trade
Toppled all the ivory towers
That privilege had made
Though I tried to change your mind
I never tried your patience
All I tried to do was
To point out your exploitation
But the powers that be took this
To be a personal insult
And refused to help me
Build my personality cult

How did I pass my time an earth
What on earth got into me?
I was a Maoist intellectual
In the music industry

I left the normal world behind
And started living in
A hinterland between dissolution
And self discipline
I burned the midnight oil to
Build my way of seeing
A miner at the coal face of meaning
The rich despised the songs I wrote
Which told the poor their worth
Told the shy to speak and told
The meek to take the earth
But my downfall came from being three
Things the working classes hated:
Agitated, organised and over-educated

How did I pass my time on earth
How did I bear witness?
As a Maoist intellectual in
The entertainment business
And how was I treated in this
World and in this industry?
As a Maoist intellectual in
A business would be

I became a hotel doorman
I stood there on the doormat
Clutching my forgotten discs in
Their forgotten format
Trying to hand them out to all
The stars who sauntered in
The ones who hadn't been like me
Who hadn't lived in vain
I gave up ideology the day I lost my looks
I never found a publisher for
My Little Red Book when I died the energy
Released by my frustration
Was nearly enough for re-incarnation

But, if I could live my life again
The last thing that I'd be
Is a Maoist intellectual in
The music industry
No if I could live my life again
I think I'd like to be
The man whose job is to stop
The men who think like me
Yeah if l could live my life again
That'd be the thing to be
The man who plots the stumbling blocks in
The lives of the likes of me!