Fun and Games - Lyrics
Posted by Tyler Kinch on August 11th, 2006
Just some lyrics that I thought I would share from one of my favorite, and coincidently NDP supporting, band:
———-
Fun and Games
Barenaked Ladies
we sent in the army
they sounded alarms we
saw it coming from a mile away
we kept it off radar
because we had to say our
intentions were to save the day
why did you fail
to see
it was a gag
it was all for a laugh
and they were shocked and they were awed
and they were blown in half
fun and games
we’re just pulling legs
we knew this barrel of fun
would be a powderkeg
we kept it all long-range
and made a regime change
you’d have thought it would have been a gas
but when it got ugly
we sat around smugly
because you bought our little joke en masse
don’t look at me that way
it was a gag
it was all for a laugh
we knew your sons and daughters
would be blown in half
fun and games
we’re just pulling legs
we knew this barrel of fun
would be a powderkeg
put a smile on
we’re the ones that you selected
leave that dial son
because we just got re-elected
in a while our
bill of rights will be rejected
and all the blame will be deflected [this bit is vaudville style]
the forests will be unprotected
the nation’s poor will be neglected
creation myth is resurrected
a new salute is genuflected
a gallup poll will be respected
gallows pole will be erected
all this will go undetected
while you all slumbered
we sat and crunched numbers
of all the causalities we could afford
there’s no need to draft them
you could hear us laugh then
the poor and black all need the room and board
did I say that
out loud
it was a gag
it was all for a laugh
and now our very nation has been blown in half
fun and games
we’re just pulling legs
we knew this barrel of fun
would be a powderkeg
we knew this barrel of fun
would be a powderkeg
it’s a powderkeg
———-
The album, entitled Barenaked Ladies Are Men, with this song on it will be released early next year after they release Barenaked Ladies Are Me in the fall. You can download a live version here for only ninety-nine cents.
Edited to add: I am keeping an online database of the lyrics for the BNL album for myself as I can not find them anywhere else on the internet. If you are interested, they can be found here.
September 18th, 2006 at 12:24 am
Wow, what a clever and poignant song. The misadventure of the Iraq war is scathingly exposed: shock and awe kills Americans, Iraqis, and moreover, wounds the best ideals of my country. As an American, I thank these Canadians for giving me a lot to think about.
September 19th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
It’s a song that really does make you think of the mess in Iraq and how it all started.
December 27th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Great song with very strong lyrics!!! BNL #1
January 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I really enjoyed this song. It caught my by surprise because the rest of the cd is not political. It’s good to see a relaxed parody by an excellent band.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Glad to hear you enjoyed the song,
But listen again. I’d say more than half the CD is political. “Maybe You Are Right”, “Take It Back”, “Angry People”, etc. In my opinion “Bull In A China Shop” is about the federal Liberals… but that’s just me and my political song. A lot of their previous songs are also very political… maybe a bit more subtle than “Fun and Games” though.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I think the reason this is so interesting is that it is a very overt political commentary. The Ladies don’t tend to do that sort of thing, so it could mean that this is a very pressing topic for them. And yes, they have done political/social commentary songs in the past; War On Drugs, for example, from Everything to Everyone.