The Kinks
The Kinks
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The opening song for the Kinks’ 1971 album, Muswell Hillbillies. The song sets the overall theme for the album, referencing various later songs in the album like “Acute Schizophrenia Blues” and “Here Come The People In Gray”.
[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
20th Century Man was written by Ray Davies.
20th Century Man was produced by Ray Davies.
The Kinks released 20th Century Man on Wed Nov 24 1971.