The Kinks
20th Century Man
[Verse 1]
This is the age of machinery
A mechanical nightmare
The wonderful world of technology
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare
[Verse 2]
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem
[Chorus 1]
Ain't got no ambition, I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't want, I don't wanna be here
[Verse 3]
My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security
I'm a paranoid, schizoid product of the twentieth century
[Verse 4]
You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough
[Chorus 2]
Girl, we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't want, I don't want to die here
Girl, we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't want, I don't want to be here
[Bridge]
I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
'Cause the twentieth-century people
Took it all away from me
[Chorus 3]
Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't wanna die here
[Chorus 4]
My mama says she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Ain't got no security
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't wanna die here
[Bridge]
I don't want twentieth-century, man
No more twentieth-century man
I don't want twentieth-century, man
[Chorus 5]
This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth-century man but I don't wanna be here