[Verse 1]
I fall asleep with the TV on
Wake with an ache, it's another week gone
Consider how my light is spent
And where it was that the real thing went
I asked a wise man for advice
I told him once and I told him twice
My life is one long damage limitation
He smacked me hard around the head
He handed me a card that read

[Chorus]
"Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation"
Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation

[Verse 2]
"Play that tune again," I cried
"It's dead and gone," the band replied
But as they slowly tried it through
The hands remembered what they had to do
Give it poke and give it licks
The name of the tune is "Laying the Bricks"
Let music be the people's sure foundation
I stood outside the Albert Hall
And wept and wrote upon the wall
[Chorus]
"Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation"
Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation

[Verse 3]
We take the water to the tree
She says, "Now do the same for me
It takes your sweat as well as art
To dig a channel for the human heart
There is no garden of delight
Unless you weed it day and night
Don't leave your life a lifelong long vacation"
I hear her whisper when we meet
And when I crawl between the sheets

[Chorus]
She says, "Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation"
She says, "Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation"
She says, "Work and work and work and work and work and work
And work like you were living in the early days of a better nation"
Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation