Thanx but No Thanx

[A Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs, read by Sgt. Major]

"Thanks for the wild turkey
And the passenger pigeons
Destined to be shat out
Through wholesome American guts

Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison

Thanks for Indians
To provide a modicum of challenge and danger

Thanks for vast herds of bison
To kill and skin and leaving the carcasses to rot

Thanks for the bounties on wolves and coyotes

Thanks for the American Dream
To vulgarize and falsify
Until the bare lies shine through

Thanks for the KKK

For the nigga-killing lawmen
Feeling their notches

For decent, church-going women
With their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers

Thanks for the laboratory AIDS

Thanks for the prohibition and the war against drugs

Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind their own business

Thanks to a nation of finks

Yes, thanks for all the memories
All right -- Let's see your arms

You always were a headache and you always were a bore

Thanks for the last and the greatest betrayal
Of the last and the greatest of human dreams"

What do you see?
A big pile of nothing...

What do you want in a country like that?
What do you see in a country like that?
What are you doin' in a country like that?
I got no answers

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks, nothing

Well, what do you feel?
Probably next to nothing..

What do you want in a country like that?
What do you see in a country like that?
What are you doin' in a country like that?
I got no answers

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

[Sgt. Major: Thanks for the drugs]

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

[Sgt. Major: Thanks for the drugs]

Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks

I say thanks but no thanks
[Sgt. Major: Thanks for the American Dream]
I say thanks but no thanks
[Sgt. Major: Thanks for the drugs
Thanks for the drugs
Drugs
The American Dream
Drugs
Drugs
Drugs
Drugs]