[Intro]
The most dangerous thing that exists in the world today is serious thing. Oh yes it is!
[Verse 1]
The way the people are living nowadays
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Can't get no work can't get no pay
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
The little children they can't go to school
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Teachers demonstrating for their salaries
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
[Verse 2]
To come home to find your children out of school
And on the streets idling is a very (Serious thing)
This arises from a situation where instead of teachers
Are in the schools teaching they are on the streets demonstrating
And that's a (Serious thing)
[Verse 3]
So much wars and famine on the land
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Yet we are making more war plans
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
There is no attention on the youths nowadays
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
No future plans or opportunities
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
[Verse 4]
The devastating memory of Hiroshima
Has not quenched the bloody thirst of Satan
And that's a very (Serious thing)
His future plans are to devour Jah children
As he eats up bread and to create instead the dawn of the dead
(Serious thing)
[Verse 5]
In town and country it's the same old cry
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Brothers and sisters I'm telling no lie
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Sometimes you'd wonder if you're wrong or right
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
If you've got to stand up and fight
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
[Verse 6]
The struggle for the Blackman's liberty against the vicious
Apartheid system of South Africa is a very (Serious thing)
And if the weapon of resistance is in the hand of the oppressed Against the oppressors then that also is a very (Serious thing)
[Verse 7]
Can't pay my bills can't pay my rent
Now let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Food is essential but I ain't got a cent
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
So much people begging in the streets
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Some are picking up to have a bite to eat
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
[Verse 8]
If in the nick-a-time you come home find the landlords
Bailiff relieving you of all your possessions
That could be a (Serious thing)
For your table or for your chair you could find a spare
But to take your bed away is a very (Serious thing)
To go to your brother to ask for a loan only to realize
That he was heading for your home is a very (Serious thing)
And to be in the position where your daily bread
Comes only from the garbage is a very (Serious thing)
[Verse 9]
Tom, Dick and Harry they are complaining, oh yeah
They are saying it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
About the condition they are living in, oh yeah
They are saying it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
So much in the prison living in one cell
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
Much more to join in in that smell
Let me tell you it's a serious thing (Serious thing)
[Verse 10]
To be confined to a cell which like a cesspool
Bears a smell it's a very, very (Serious thing)
To be stripped of all your rights, sanity
Dignity and liberty it's a very, very (Serious thing)
To be chained and shackled and thrown in a dungeon
It's a very, very (Serious thing)
It's like working on a chain-gang but it's more than that
It's a (Serious thing)
Ain't got no liberation (Serious thing)
Serious Thing was written by Bunny Wailer.