All Your Questions Answered

Who made the wealth
In this pleasant land?
The entrepreneurs made it
With their only free hand

Why do prices rise?
Who's to blame for that?
The workers put up prices
With their pay demands

Some speak of the facts
But I'm not sure about that
The only vital thing is
That our own view of the world wins

Don't cry
We will work it out
You've got to buy
The views we put about it

The views of the rich
The views of the powerful
Then your confusion
Will magically disappear

Why is there bad news
On the economic front?
The Japanese are trading
I'm barely living

Who destroyed our industry?
Who can tell me that?
The Germans swamp the market
With their German products

Some speak of the facts
But I'm not sure about that
The only vital thing is
That our own view of the world wins

Don't cry
We will work it out
You must only buy
The views we put about

The views of the rich
The views of the powerful
Then your confusion
Will soon disappear

notes:

Malcolm:

This was inspired by a leaflet I found in Westminster Cathedral, which answered people's questions about the Catholic Church in a fairly hapless manner. In this song, it's a spokesman for the capitalist class who answers the public's questions in a fairly hapless manner.

After a long, Rip van Winkle type slumber, a confused spectator observes his nation and wonders, where have all the factories gone?  What happened to the British economy?

Compliments New Left Review #2 as another commentary on the state of the British economy and labor movement in 1989.  The title is something of a broken promise, as the lyrics consist of only incessant and unanswered questions.  At first, we see rising prices blamed on workers demanding higher wages.  This is obviously corporate propaganda, which is then mixed with the bewildered and by all accounts unbiased speaker's views.

Perhaps this is something of a warning against ambiguity, against a lack of conviction.  "Some speak of the facts, but I'm not sure about that."  In any complicated affair there are always arguments at either extreme battling for the undecided middle's attention.  "The facts" become increasingly murky to the otherwise uninvolved, and a wary apathy may ensue.  "Better leave this to the experts..."

The song actually seems something of a conversation between this uncertain voice (the voice of the British people in general?) and the confident voice urging "don't cry" and accept our views, our ideology, and everything will be fine.

For more on what was going on in the 80's in the UK and the US economically, you might start here.

Musically, the guitar line reminds me of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watch Tower," giving it a very "protest song" feel (as if McCarthy needed any help there).  And is that an accordion I hear in the background near the end?

If you're willing to blast your stereo, you can catch the faint sound bite at the very end of the track.  Sounds like Italian or Spanish to my ears.

found on: The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth, At War EP

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