Capitalism Gone Mad [Song]

Uploaded by luchoquiroz
CAPITALISM GONE MAD
By Mighty Sparrow

You got to be a millionaire or some kind of petit-bourgeoisie
Any time you living here in this country
You got to be in skullduggery, making your money illicitly
To live like somebody in this country
It's outrageous and insane, them crazy prices in Port of Spain
And like the merchants going out dey brain
And the working man, like he only toiling in vain.

Chorus:
Where you ever hear, a television for seven thousand
Quarter million for lil piece of land
A pair of sneakers - two hundred dollars
Eighty, ninety thousand for motor cars
At last here in Trinidad, we see capitalism gone mad
It's sad and getting more bad because, doudou, capitalism gone mad!

To provide for your family today on your present salary
Is an impossibility in this country
So many bills to pay, there is no conceivable way
To save for a rainy day in this country
Avariciousness to be precise, is why every damn thing so overpriced
Big business making everybody feel
Government give them an open license to steal.

Chorus:
Would you believe me, one nylon panty is nineteen ninety
Twenty dollars for some baby milk
The cheapest jersey cost over sixty
Two hundred and change a yard for silk
It hard here in Trinidad, lord have mercy, capitalism gone mad
It's sad, things getting more bad, oh lord, capitalism gone mad!

To buy a pack of cigarette does leave you with a hole in your wallet
And money is so hard to get in this country
Necessity or luxuries, it doesn't matter what the item is
They charging anything they please in this country
Primary school books prices lewd
Is highway robbery, the price of food
All hopes and dreams elude the poor man
But politicians still expect good work attitude.

Chorus:
Just imagine this, the cheapest coffin over three thousand
Not even dying today easy
Thousands of dollars for the undertakers
So you could get a spot in the cemetery
It hard here in Trinidad, oh lord, capitalism gone mad
The gladness that once we had is gone because capitalism gone mad!

You got to have heavy contact, know how to move up in society
To make any kind of impact in this country
You got to know how to gyp the field
How to scheme and swindle properly
Perfect the art of wheel and deal in this country
I say, survival in this land isn't easy for no man
With unemployment and high inflation
Some of we go dead before the end of this recession.

Chorus:
Wey de hell is dis, a Mango Julie costing three fifty
Forty dollars for one watermelon
Half your salary for fish, meat and poultry
Time you buy greens all your money done.
It hard here in Trinidad, lord, have mercy, capitalism gone mad
It sad and getting more hard, put a hand, lord, capitalism gone mad!

Source:The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

High Cost Of Living [Song]

  Uploaded by mightysparrowaz HIGH COST OF LIVING (1955)
By Mighty Sparrow

Everyday you read the paper
Somebody dead, they can't find the murderer
Everyday you read the paper
Somebody dead, they can't find the murderer
Everybody asking the same question
"Why it have so much ah crime in this island?"
If you really want to know what they fighting for
Some people have too much and some too poor...especially

The high cost of living, lord!
Higher than a mountain
People like me and you so
Have to stand up and watch the goods at Hi-Lo.

Just imagine you are not working
You have a wife and two children starving
But over by neighbour Chung Lee
No chick, no child, he pack up with money
A man like me will try to stick mih grind
But everybody cannot have the same mind
By this alone I want everybody to see
The majority of crime is through poverty...because

The high cost of living, lord!
Higher than a mountain
People like me and you so
Have to stand up and watch the goods at Hi-Lo.

Some people sleeping on the pavement
Some again, twenty-five apartment
Some working for two dollars a day
Some can't count their money when they get pay
The government have a right to see to this
Put a stopping to all this foolishness
See that a poor man get work, a good salary
To maintain himself and his family... especially nowadays

The high cost of living, lord!
Higher than a mountain
People like me and you so
Have to stand up and watch the goods at Hi-Lo.

Many days a man may be bawling
Wake up in the morning, he ent have a shilling
Perhaps his wife might have a baby
Sick in bed or as the case may be
It have a lot of people in that position T
hey are really in deep suffocation
If the authorities don't lend a helping hand
The poorer class will sure die from starvation...because

The high cost of living, murder!
Higher than a mountain
People like me and you so
Have to stand up and watch the goods at Hi-Lo.

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! .............................................................................................   

 

A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Mighty Sparrow.

I read over at Ice Records that this was the Mighty Sparrow's first social commentary. How far have we come since that song was first sung fifty-three years ago? Hard times and good times come and they go and so do humans. Is that all there is? We just continue to be born to contribute to circumstances and to react to them whether positively or negatively?

Sometimes I think that our recorded histories, our grand summaries and declarations are just our field notes as we continue to observe and document our plight over time. We are not meant to use these to change ourselves or to figure out the code that holds the key to our evolution. Maybe there is no need for evolution. That's another fantasy perhaps? Maybe we are as good as we will ever be and ALL our troubles stem from our trying to outdo, to improve on NATURE.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare