The closing song on Episode 1 of BBC4 series Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better.
So this is a song about greed; I’ve called it ‘Greed’, or in brackets, ‘Balsa Wood and Glue’.
When I was a young chap, just a little bouncing boy
My family was not wealthy so I had to make do
With secondhand pyjamas and a single wooden toy:
A dinosaur my daddy made with balsa wood and glue
But when I turned thirteen and to high school off I trotted
I knew immediately that my dino wouldn't do
'Cause I had noticed all the toys the other boys had gotted
And I couldn't help myself, I wished that I had got them, too
My daddy made a dinosaur with balsa wood and glue
But before too long I knew that my dino wouldn't do
When I was fifteen years old, I first turned to thieving
To satiate my craving to have things the other kids had
I stole a gnarly skateboard from a skateboard shop one evening
It had bodacious fluoro railing and a wicked fluoro skidpad
By the following Monday morning, the skateboardin' turned to boredom
My appetite for skating was abating in a flash
So I sold my board and bought a pair of flippers and a snorkel
But soon I balked at snorkelling, forked my snorkel in the trash
My daddy made a dinosaur with balsa wood and glue
But before too long I knew that my dino wouldn't do
At eighteen I managed hedge funds and got fat by drinking beer
At twenty I owned seven cars and houses on the coast
I fell in love at twenty-three with a Swedish girl called Mia
I bought a 200-quid toaster, with which Mia made me toast
At twenty-eight I went through, like, a Buddhist kind of thing
And decided that the material world and I were through
I hooked up with some Buddhist chicks who said that they were twins
But they didn't look that similar, and they did stuff twins don't do
My daddy made a dinosaur with balsa wood and glue
But before too long I knew that my dino wouldn't do
But now I'm forty-seven stone and thirty-one years old
I have a kitchen staff of twelve on call twenty-four hours a day
And a Page Three girl I pay to lick chocolate from my folds
And a rent boy called Llywelyn, though I'm neither Welsh nor gay
Now to those who judge my lifestyle to be gluttonous and brash
And criticize my excess acquisition and consumption
I say that critics of the wealthy are just those who don't have cash
And who have never had a prostitute spread marmite on their scrotum
My daddy made a dinosaur with balsa wood and glue
But before too long I knew that my dino wouldn't do
My father died a year ago; to dust he's now returned
And I found my wooden dinosaur which all these years has lasted
And I cremated it and put it with dad's ashes in an urn
Below a gravestone with three words on it:
"Stingy fucking bastard"
My daddy made a dinosaur with balsa wood and glue
Which is all very quaint, but I'd rather eat foie gras inside a Porsche
Greed (Balsa Wood and Glue) was written by Tim Minchin.
Greed (Balsa Wood and Glue) was produced by Katie Marsden.
Tim Minchin released Greed (Balsa Wood and Glue) on Tue Feb 13 2007.