1984

*I'd call this the first really good protest song I ever wrote. I've a strong recollection of sitting in the flat at Gatty with Ross and Nina saying 'I've not had much inspiration recently' and then playing 1984 for the first time. They scoffed. It owes something to a headline in The Onion saying something like 'Freedoms curtailed in defence of liberty'. My name is George, just like my dad
Like him, I'm the President of the States
We're the crookedest cop the world has ever had
Now someone's thrown it right back in our face

So round up the usual suspect
The foreign-looking chappie with the beard
As scapegoats go, he's perfect
And just to prove it all, he's disappeared

In the name of democracy and freedom
Please don't challenge me about the war
Don't send me letters, I won't read 'em
Tonight we're going to party like it's 1984
1984

The best way to remember our dead
Is to get out there and kill some more
And if our bombs hit hospitals instead
It isn't what we /meant/ to use them for

In the name of democracy and freedom
Please don't challenge me about the war
Don't send me letters, I won't read 'em
Tonight we're going to party like it's 1984
1984

I'm just trying to sate the nation's bloodlust
And the press are bound to ride along
Now I've been elected, I will do what I must
Sixty million halfwits can't be wrong

In the name of democracy and freedom
Please don't challenge me about the war
Don't send me letters, I won't read 'em
Tonight we're going to party like it's 1984
1984