Amused to Death

Doctor, doctor, what is wrong with me?
This supermarket life is getting long
What is the heart life of a colour TV?
What is the shelf life of a teenage queen?

Ooh, Western woman
Ooh, Western girl

News hound sniffs the air
When Jessica Hahn goes down
He latches on to that symbol of detachment
Attracted by the peeling away of feeling
The celebrity of the abused shell, the belle

Ooh, Western woman
Ooh, Western girl
Ooh, Western woman
Ooh, Western girl

And the children on Melrose strut their stuff
Is absolute zero cold enough?
And out in the valley, warm and clean
The little ones sit by their TV screen
No thoughts to think, no tears to cry
All sucked dry, down to the very last breath

Bartender, what is wrong with me?
Why am I so out of breath?
The captain said, "Excuse me, ma'am
This species has amused itself to death"

(Amused itself to death)
It has amused itself to death
(Amused itself to death)

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told, we bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth
But then it was over
We oohed and aahed, we drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out spied a flickering light
(Our last hurrah)
Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows
Grouped 'round the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then
The alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death

No tears to cry, no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death
Amused itself to death
(Amused itself to death)

Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the, the memorial
To the missing at Arras
(Amused itself to death)
And, and, uh, I, when I saw his name, I was absolutely transfixed
It was as though he was now a human being
Instead of some sort of nightmarish memory
Of how I had to leave him in, all those years ago
(Amused itself to death)

And I felt relieved, and ever since then, I've felt happier about it
Because always before, whenever I thought of him, I would say to myself
"Was there something else that I could have done?"
(Amused itself to death) "Put me down, put me down
I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me down"
And that always sort of worried me
But having seen him, and his name in the register (amused itself to death)
As you know, in the memorials, there's a little safe
And there's a register in there with every, every name, and
Seeing his name and his name on the memorial
It sort of lightened, lightened my, heart, if you like

(Amused itself to death)
When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?
Ah, when I was 87
Uh, that would be the year, 90-, 84, 1984