From the recording Passion Play
Hooray for Us A spectacle of cinematic proportions, involving session musicians, scene changes, tempo and meter changes, a chorus of thousands, quotes of odd songs coming out of nowhere, an old-time victrola – and plenty of high-voltage fury about the current-and-future state of America. Musically it’s a cross between Andy Pratt’s ‘Avenging Annie’ and Billy Joel, with a sardonic, Randy Newman-style attitude in the lyric.
‘Hooray’ is an eight-minute piece of musical theater which, with lyrics reeking of caustic satire and word-play, lambasts the rampant, dangerous spread of jingoism spreading like a cancer through the very core of our already disaster-fatigued national soul. And with the new, repressive regime ready to jackboot down the door of Democracy, the jingoes are just getting warmed up.
With the USA (stolen from those already here no less) ranking 4th in labor force, 7th in literacy skills, 22nd in science skills, 27th in math skills, 49th in life expectancy, 15th in overall quality of life, 178th in infant mortality and 69th in quality health care, we’ve got a lot of nerve puffing our chests out like some over-inflated sex toy. The only things the Unites States leads in are defense spending (more than the next 26 countries combined) and number of incarcerated citizens per capita.
There are two quotes I’ll include as the finale to these observations. They are as follows:
“Tell a lie long and loud enough and the people will begin to believe it” - attributed to Adolph Hitler
“It is much easier to fool someone than it is to convince them they’ve been fooled” – Mark Twain
Lyrics
Hooray for Us
it’s the Man from Glad! check out the latest hero
Mr. Studley Dudley Do-right
a head-to-toe real regular Joe
gone Superman overnight
better step aside, he’s a-truckin’ on through
safe and sound on the company plan
from the way Hard Charger keeps his troops in line
you can tell he’s a family man
higher, higher up the ladder of life he goes
bigger is better buddy, don’t you know?
no no no it don’t get better than this
hooray for the cowboys dressed in white
hooray for the system treats us all just right
hooray for the rules keepin creeps off the bus
but mostly we say Hooray For Us
he’s a little Bill with a big fat wish
he’s gonna own himself a Sears someday
selling washy-dryers to the hoi-polloi
man-with-a-plan is on his way
taking cash up front to deliver your stuff
another taste to pick it back up
then another from the dude who makes it disappear
is this a great system or what?
higher, higher up the ladder of life he goes
bigger and better, even lil’ BillyBob knows
no no no it don’t get better than this
hooray for the good guys all dressed in white
and everybody knows when you’re white you’re right
hooray for Yankees, cause we’re the best
from New York City to the wild wild West
hooray, cause the little Bills win sometime
hooray for the system treatin’ us just fine
hooray for the rules keeping creeps off the bus
but mostly we say Hooray For Us
I love to be in America, okay by me in America
everything free in America for a small fee in America…
(just a half a mile from the…mmmmmmmm…
anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant)
hats off to the wise ones who run us so well
from all the law and order here
you’d never know the place has gone to hell
and here’s to the “experts”, no shadows of doubt
they’re happy to tell us we’re winning, we’re in and they’re out
higher, higher faster flyer we go
bigger is better baby, don’t you know?
no no no it doesn’t get better than this
hooray for the cowboys always dressed in white
hooray for the system treats us all just right
hooray for Yankees cause we’re the best
from Atlantic City to the wild wild West
step aside buddy, I got the right-of-way
hooray we’re ok, in God we trust
don’t listen to them hosers sayin this-or-that sucks
what you’d better say is
hooray for US
30 July 2004
Music & Lyrics by George Wallace
© 2005 Celestial Songs (ASCAP)