POVERTY

Andre Fritze has requested the lyrics to this song which I wrote in Sydney in the 80s with Martin Cilia around the time of Surplus and Dearth. It didn’t make that album but I decided to add it to the CD re-issue of This is my Planet which I renamed This Is Your Planet.  That CD sold out so it can now be found on the double CD Correct Planet – which contains all the songs from Correct Weight (1979) plus all the tracks from the re-issue This is your Planet.  I was looking for a kind of Van Dyke Parks laid back feel to contrast against the lyrics which are earnest, and could easily become melodramatic and/or didactic which I hate and which would work against the genuine sentiment of the song.  Nice work from Martin who did the music single-handedly.  I might do a new rockier  version at some point for the heck of it. BTW reckon I might be the only songwriter who has managed to get Irkutsk into a lyric.

POVERTY

I’ve been around a long long time

I’ve crossed oceans I’ve crossed seas

You’ve tried to stamp me out in every new society

But you’ve never got me down yet

And you never will succeed

As long as there is human nature there’ll be human greed

I’m poverty poverty you really don’t want no part of me

Poverty poverty  and if you see me coming you should flee

I’m in the Horn of Africa

I’m everywhere you look

The Highlands of Papua to the Tundra of Irkutsk

And you’ll find me in surprising places

Just a step from Royalty

While the rich get richer the poor poor just get me

I’m poverty poverty you really don’t want no part of me

Poverty poverty  and if you see me coming you should flee

I’m ever present    I’m so resilient

The curse of the peasant   I’m just so Brazilian

And you’ll never rid me no just wait and see

The Ritz will get richer and the poor will get me

I’m poverty poverty you really don’t want no part of me

Poverty poverty  and if you see me coming you should flee