Where The Hell Are We Going To Live?
===================================
Written by Paul Wright. From the OTF-issued "Police On My Back" 12".
Transcribed by K. M. Dunnett (keithdunnett@yahoo.com), 18/04/00.
Same chords throughout
Many thanks to Tony Coll, a friend of Paul, and Jessica Meadows, Paul's neice who
both got intouch to point out that it was in fact Paul Wright who wrote this song.
The following is from Tony (January 2006):
Paul Wright was quite free about giving his songs to others, and I expect it was
about 17th hand and credited to 'anon' by the time it reached The Levellers. Paul
would have loved to know that it ended up on a Levellers album via the 'oral
tradition' which he loved!
Paul Wright was born and lived in Walthamstow, where he worked for a time as a
reporter on the Waltham Forest Guardian newspaper. He wrote 'Where The Hell Are We
Going To Live?' at a time when so-called slum terraces were being pulled down and
replaced by horrible tower blocks. Coincidentally, the Beaumont Estate in Leyton -
exactly the type of horror he was protesting about - is being pulled down in a few
weeks time, and there's a community play called 'Home' being enacted in one of the
blocks before it comes down. I'm angling to get Paul's song performed as part of
the show!
CAPO 1!
G D Em
Well the May that I was married
C D G D
We tried to settle down
C G G D
But all we need's half a million quid
G D Em
For to buy a two up and two down
We were on the Council waiting list
Number six thousand and five
We're due for our house in two thousand and one
That's assuming we're both still alive
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Some miserable mansion up in the sky
Walking around in a block a mile high
Telling my friends that I'd much rather die
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Well it's all a bleeding fiddle
Forgive me for being so rude
I know we could save for the mortgage right now
If the two of us stopped eating food
Where the hell do our kids play?
Where the hell do our kids play?
No ball games allowed, stay off the grass
Keep out the way, don't block up the path
Shove all your plans, right up your ----
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Some miserable mansion up in the sky
Walking around in a block a mile high
Telling my friends that I'd much rather die
Where the hell are we gonna live?
They're building battery farms for humans
Where houses stood before
Where there used to be just one family
They're now trying to keep twenty-four.
There's no shops, playgrounds, no boozers
In the architect's great plan
You may want to live like a chicken my friend
But I want to live like a man
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Where the hell are we supposed to live?
Some miserable mansion up in the sky
Walking around in a block a mile high
Telling my friends that I'd much rather die
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Where the hell are we gonna live?
Where the hell are we supposed live?
Some miserable mansion up in the sky
Walking around in a block a mile high
Telling my friends that I'd much rather die
Where the hell are we gonna live?
