Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
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Tom Waits & Sparklehorse
Tom Waits
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Tom Waits
Tom Waits
This is a version of the 1928 agitprop socialist anthem written by Bertolt Brecht with composer Kurt Weill for their musical drama, The Threepenny Opera.
William S. Burroughs also did a version:
You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching that's where it begins
You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for once the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing morals follow on
So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive
What keeps mankind alive
The fact that millions
Are daily tortured stifled punished silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
For once you must try not to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive
By bestial acts
What Keeps Mankind Alive was written by Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht.
What Keeps Mankind Alive was produced by Kathleen Brennan & Tom Waits.