Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality
In Bradford, where I come from,
The church is selling booze.
If you can't beat them join them
Is the slogan that they choose.
But you know it's kind of logical
Once they have got the knack
To deal in beer and whisky
And heroin and crack.
'Cos everyone's a junkie
And I don't intend to joke:
With our beer and cigarettes,
Our caffeine and our coke,
With Page 3 sex and cult religion,
Football and TV,
We'll do anything to protect ourselves
From reality.
The baby in the cradle
Who's barely off the breast
Is taught to guzzle sugar drinks,
And as you might have guessed,
His mum and dad so fat that they
Can hardly move along
From bar-stool to the fag machine
Or tell you right from wrong.
Yes, everyone's a junkie:
We're addicts to a man.
And to make us stay addicted
They've got a master plan
To make us buy their products
And play the lottery,
Do anything but face up
To reality.
Karl Marx said that religion
Is the opium of the earth,
But I think he got it backwards,
If you'll excuse my mirth.
It's junk that's our religion,
We worship all the time,
We pump it in our brains and arms
From dawn till closing time.
So everyone's a junkie
And I don't care who you are,
If you get it from a dealer
Or at the corner bar.
You can smoke it, shoot it, drink it,
Play it, pray it; can't you see
That the hit is nothing like as good
As reality.
We think our brains need changing,
That's why we do this stuff.
The time has come for closing time,
To say: That's quite enough.
It's reality needs fixing
Not the way it seems,
Time to change the way things are
And living out our dreams.
Reach your hand out to the junkie
Though the fix be beer or smack,
'Cos you'll never make it on your own
Or lying on your back.
Together we can kick it
And set our bodies free
And learn to live in touch with
The true reality.
So don't mess with your body
Or your brain, that's given you
To be clear about your choices
And what you've got to do.
And don't despise the smackhead
'Cos you stay within the law,
For reality's the trip
That we were sent here for.
You don't need to be a junkie
You can get a natural high
From the birds and bees and flowers and trees
And people passing by.
Stop chasing good times and the
Better times will come, you will agree,
When you learn to stay in touch
With reality.
Amsterdam, August 31, 1999,
Bradford, September 1, 1999
