World Hold On
Written byJohn Close February 1994

Intro: pan to Bigmore on right of shot looking incoherent with a mixture of bewilderment and chaos etched on his grim visage. Close is left, by a water cooler, wearing shades, cooler contents are purple. And so, on...Written during the two years I worked with Jim Bigmore on a joint CD venture, this started life as a Dylanesque plodder until I discovered a particular backing on the Yamaha QY20 that made me think about the song differently.

The world was green once upon a time
And they say that people were happy then
Now each generation finds extinction is a matter
Not of whether but simply of when
The grass is covered with concrete and steel
And we drift along through confusion and mess
Each of us equipped with a steering wheel
That can take us anywhere but to happiness

Those who run away from reason
Always find time to regret
Change is coming much too fast now
World hold on, don't go yet

People are unhappy with the way things are
People are unhappy with their own lives
They don't have neighbours, just people next door
And they're giving up on playing at husbands and wives
I used to think that life had a logical shape
And everyone worked to some kind of plan
Now it's all disappearing in confusion and greed
Even survival's going down the pan

A friend of mine got married, then inside a month
He's out chasing some other woman
His wife is playing round with an old boyfriend
Who's third wife is now expecting their second
At the end of the road there's a landfill site
And the trucks come and go night and day
And the flames grow wilder on the waste-gas pipe
As they endlessly burn the bad world away

O people, my people, when the good Lord made us tall
Did he make us crazy?
Or have we done that for ourselves?
O sisters, and brothers, do we wait for the fire to rage
Before we go and fetch the bucket
And take it to the well?

I should give up worrying 'bout the state of the world
And concern myself with the state of my skull
But it's all the same, I suppose
Too much pollution and and it all goes dull
I need a yellow pill to keep my temperature down
And a red one to keep the tears inside
But why each little pill makes me even more sick
No doctor yet has been able to decide

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