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  1. American Dream

From the recording American Dream

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About The Song

This song could just as easily be called the 'Australian Dream', the 'British Dream', or any other country's national 'dream'. The Australian Dream has always been characterised as the dream of owning your own house. The American Dream seems to be so much bigger and all encompassing. 


I was reading a copy of the American ADBUSTERS magazine (March/April 2003, #46). It contained an item which said in part: "One day, a man decides not to go to his well-paying job. Instead, he goes to a nearby bank and robs it. He does this not to get some easy cash – the usual motive – but to get himself locked up, which he quickly succeeds in doing. In fact, the police station is just across the street. The man does this, because he has become suicidally desperate to sever himself from his middle-class existence, all of which seems pretty strange given that his life seems suspiciously akin to the American dream. Interviewed in prison, the man reports that he feels a whole lot better, and he sounds pretty convincing too."


Well, how could I not see the possibilities of a song in that story. American Dream is the result.

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Lyrics

American Dream

© 2003, Jim Lesses. All Rights Reserved


Man walks into a downtown store,

Waving a gun; people fall to the floor.

Fills up his bag, then he waits for the cops,

To-day is the day the rat race stops.

CHORUS

Big Mac, heart attack, anytime at all,

Sky high, penthouse, see the body fall.

Wall Street broker, hanging on a beam,

They’re all checking out of the American Dream.
Oh yeah, American Dream...


Girl on a corner looking for tricks,

She’s got a habit; she just has to fix.

Pays for the deal; takes what she gets,

Dies in the alley too late for regrets.

CHORUS

Big Mac, heart attack, anytime at all,

Sky high, penthouse, see the body fall.

Wall Street broker, hanging on a beam,

They’re all checking out of the American Dream.

Yeah yeah, American Dream...


Man on a mountain ready for attack,

Building a cabin, and he ain’t coming back.

Hides in the bushes; kills what he needs,

Down on the prairie the big city bleeds.

CHORUS

Big Mac, heart attack, anytime at all,

Sky high, penthouse, see the body fall.

Wall Street broker, hanging on a beam,

They’re all checking out of the American Dream.

BRIDGE

The man with a pistol; the girl on the game,

High on the mountain they’re part of the blame.

Wall Street broker; nobody is redeemed,

They’re all checking out of the American Dream.
Oh yeah, all checking out of the American Dream...

Yeah, yeah, all checking out of the American Dream...

CHORUS
Big Mac, heart attack, anytime at all,

Sky high, penthouse, see the body fall.

Wall Street broker, hanging on a beam,

They’re all checking out of the American Dream.

CODA:

Oh yeah, all checking out of the American Dream...

Yeah, yeah, all checking out of the American Dream.