“The Atom” Sheet Music (pdf).
“The Atom” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Casey Connor.
Tune: Paul Simon.
I am just an atom, and my story’s seldom told.
I have squandered nanoseconds on a campaign full of mumbles.
Such are promises.
It’s all rhetoric.
Still, a proton likes electrons, and they offered me a deal.
Oh, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
In their manufactured Cold War, they told me—I was the best—
That I’d fight for truth and justice.
And they sure loved my wave particle duality.
I was naive.
I agreed to speak to neutrons that were waiting in the hall.
I was mighty proud, feeling several angstroms tall.
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
They said, “It works just like the sun except that lots of people die.”
It’s an instrument of peace
Except that all it does is feed our bloated war machine.
Free energy except for all the start-up costs and clean-up costs
And storage costs and healthcare costs
And environmental costs and political costs.
I asked only for a reason. I went looking for some answers.
But I got no answers:
Just a dogmatic waffling about security.
They are two-faced!
The peace-time dividend was spent to start a brand-new arms race.
Oh, not again….
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
Now, I’m laying out my electron shells
And wishing I was gone,
Going home,
Where the Lawrence Livermore Labs aren’t beating me,
Depleting me,
Going home.
In the clearing on Vieques stands the general in charge
With his face lost in a daydream of Space Cowboys and Indians.
But suddenly, I wake up, and I know what I must do.
I am leaving; I am leaving.
I will not fuse for you!
Oh, no, no, no….
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie,
Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.