Cruel, Cruel World

Well I was walkin' down the street one day when I thought I spied a man
He had some money in his pocket, he had a bible in his hand
An' he was shoutin' about the government, about god and man and law
About how he wanted folks like you an' me to go to war
He wanted war against pornography, and war against the reds
He wanted war against those folks who do those nasty things in bed
An' I said, oh-oh-oh-oh, it's a cruel, cruel world,
I said oh-oh-oh-oh, it's a cruel, cruel world

I said, well why don't we just put an end to war throughout the land,
Reach out to each other and extend a helping hand?
He said, now son, don't be ridiculous, the world don't work that way
Some of us got to profit now, and some of us got to pay
I said, well what about the refugees gettin' bombed in Salvador,
And the Nicaraguan peasants who want peace and nothin' more?
He said, now son, this is a cruel, cruel world, people dyin' every day,
We don't mean nobody harm, I guess they just got in the way
An' he said, oh-oh-oh-oh, well it's a cruel, cruel world
He said, oh-oh-oh-oh, well it's a cruel, cruel world (repeat)

So I thought this whole thing over, an' I see he made some sense,
If someone gets hurt inadvertantly, you should not take offense
So when I heard that Pieter Botha died while imprisoned by the blacks,
An' they said it was an accident, well I took it for a fact
An' when somebody said Ronald Reagan died in a similar accident,
When a mine went off beneath his car, well I knew just what they meant
An' when I heard Augusto Pinochet somehow burst into flames
Well I knew that was a mishap too, and no one was to blame
An' then again there's Boris Yeltsin who stumbled over the Kremlin wall
And the workers cried as he fluttered down "Be careful how you fall!"
An' at last there's Henry Kissinger, he got carpet-bombed one day,
Well Hank was one unlucky guy, I guess he just got in the way!
An' I said, oh-oh-oh-oh, it's a cruel, cruel world,
I said, oh-oh-oh-oh, well it's a cruel, cruel world (repeat and out).

Lyrics by Alan Franklin 1989