WORDS
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
My lips are moving and the sound’s coming out
The words are audible but I have my doubts
That you realize what has been said
You look at me as if you’re in a daze
It’s like the feeling at the end of the page
When you realize you don’t know what you just read
What are words for
When no one listens anymore
What are words for
When no one listens
What are words for
When no one listens
There’s no use talking at all
I might as well go up and talk to a wall
‘Cause all the words are having no effect at all
It’s a funny thing, I say to myself
Something has to happen to change the direction
What little filters though is giving you the wrong impression
It’s a sorry state, am I all alone?
What are words for
When no one listens anymore
What are words for
When no one listens
What are words for
When no one listens
There’s no use talking at all
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Let me get by over your dead body
Hope to see you soon, when will I know?
Doors three feet wide with no locks open
Walking always backwards in the faces of strangers
Time could be my friend
But it’s less than nowhere now, it’s less than nowhere now
It’s less than nowhere now, nowhere now
Pursue it any further and another thing you’ll find
Not only are they deaf and dumb they could be going blind
No one notices, I think I’ll dye my hair blue
Media overload bombarding you with action
It’s getting near impossible to cause distraction
Someone answer me before I pull the plug
What are words for
When no one listens anymore
What are words for
When no one listens
What are words for
When no one listens
There’s no use talking at all
What are words for
When no one listens anymore
What are words for
When no one listens
What are words for
When no one listens
There’s no use talking at all
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you hear me?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you care?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you hear me?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you care?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you hear me?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you care?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you hear me?
(Tell me what are words for)
Do you care?
(Tell me what are words for)
Songwriters
Warren Cuccurullo, Terry Bozzio
Published by
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management US, LLC
Sung by
Missing Persons
Thanks for sharing. Struck me immediately while listening to the song, it’s a whole lot like some typical folk music lyrics from the sixties embedded in the music styles of the day. You could put a bit of a twist on that old physiological saying, “If no one hears it, does a tree really make a sound in the forest when it falls.” 🙂
I had to look it up, but this song was released in 1982. So it does fall somewhere between the folk music era and today’s styles (with which I’m not at all familiar). Maybe Washington is hearing the words of some people (those with lots of money), but many, many more of us despair of ever being heard again. I used to think at least I had a vote that counted, but Citizens United has pretty much silenced that.
Breaking News is a trope readily ignored these days, or at least in my house. But let’s face it, the evening (TV) news is more about entertainment, gawking, and advertisement than about informing. Current affairs Lite, with equal parts violence and celebrity worship. I cringe when I hear network anchors use the term, journalist.
I recall that on the night the Paris terrorist attacks were the breaking news, not one of our three network stations showed any national news whatsoever. All three were airing football. But, you know what? I don’t blame them. They are what they are and taking it out on the networks would be like kicking my dog for being a dog. The problem is modern culture, and, a failure of education. As the lyrics say, (almost) nobody is listening.
There was a nice op-ed column in our Sunday paper this morning by a local professor, bemoaning the sad state of historical knowledge by young people. She said most high-school history classes these days are taught by clueless coaches. Ouch.
Sad to say, my high school American History class (circa 1959) was taught by a coach. Sounds like not much has changed, except here in the Denver metro we’ve had at least one ultraconservative school board try to rewrite history and teach only the “good” things about America. Even the kids were smart enough to realize the disservice and marched in the streets in protest. Thankfully those board members were all recalled and replaced in a recent election.
The broadcast media are, in turn, a circus, a zoo, a horror show. Journalism as I learned it is nowhere on the agenda. The “journalists” in the field lack ethics. Some can’t even speak or write grammatically correct English. The “anchors” in the studio are just pretty faces reading what’s put before them. And all are mere puppets of their respective corporate bosses.
Yet I’ll bet more Americans get their news from TV and social media than from print journalism. And heaven forbid they consider foreign news sources. When the public is ignorant, the politicians and the very wealthy can and do run amok with little or no opposition.
Jim, your reference to “Breaking News” definitely strikes a sour chord in me. I had always been a fairly big fan of David Muir so when he took over the ABC Nightly News Anchor position from Diane Sawyer I looked forward to watching his newscasts. It did, unfortunately, take very little time for me to sour on his particular technique of opening every newscast at the time which was with the catch phrase, “Good evening and we start this evening’s broadcast with breaking news….”
Problem was for me, the breaking news he was consistently referring to had actually been broadcast hours before on the many active news sources. It was not breaking news at all. I know we all have our own opinions on our choice of news sources but to “hype” up a newscast with attention grabbing adjectives like ‘breaking news’ when it is actually not breaking news aggravates me to no end! 🙂
In this fast paced world with the internet news and satellite news what is “breaking news” to some is old hat to others. Unfortunately if the “breaking news” does not affect me (us) in the here and now,it can wait. What I am doing is way more important than what is in the news. I would rather hear fact than speculation and it seems that a lot of TV news tends to over speculate. It reminds me of “talk radio” on TV.
“Breaking news” is another issue I have with the media. On TV at least, everything is “breaking news” even if they’ve been covering the story for hours. In my mind “breaking news” is news that just happened. Perhaps in the last hour or so. If it’s a big enough story, you “break” into other programming with the story. If it didn’t just happen, it’s not breaking, it’s just news.
Ditto
Not listening any more because the words are used poorly, out of context, or their meanings are so twisted the words become meaningless.
Back to: actions speak louder than words…beauty is a beauty does…Just the fact, M’am, just the facts ….and bubbling fountains instead of the babbling dunderheads
I quit listening when “reporters” crashed that apartment in San Bernardino. But just as infuriating and sickening is what keeps coming out of our legislatures and Washington. Just words. Empty words. Futile, useless, repetitive words. Platitudes. Everybody babbles on like they can talk the problem to death. No action! Nobody’s doing anything! How much longer before somebody with power and influence does something!?
Decency has been replaced by scandal and fight for “you heard it first here” (whether it was worth even putting on the air or not…all about selling advertising and getting viewers…to sell more advertising…)
Sadly with career politicians and governments it seems that actual action producing results has been confused with talking loudly with emotion and great drama.The image of doing something is all that counts – like the military dog bill and so many others. And they think we, the public, don’t notice. It is infuriating.
Nothing gets done because they’re all campaigning for re-election. No time to work. Campaigns run all year every year. Gotta polish the image and get re-elected. No time for anything else.