There’s a microchip about the size of a fingernail on a cockroach
It controls all of the power for fourteen different countries
Some guy in Japan who got kicked around in junior high
Made the thing one afternoon last June
And I play my guitar

There’s a factory in Switzerland that makes a certain wristwatch
That’s precise to half a second in a hundred thousand years
Men spend lifetimes studying graphs and curves
To ensure that half a second is eternally preserved
And I play my guitar

There’s a missile base in Utah that can pick out one whole country
Or a city or a street or a number on a house
Or the plastic-coated end of the shoelace threaded through
The seventh eyelet of a boot spattered muddy from the road
I get lost driving from here to ????????
And I play my guitar

There’s a company not far from here that can keep someone alive
At six hundred below zero for up to five thousand years
Or at least until their cancer or whatever their disease
Has been rendered obsolete and can easily be cured
I stayed too long in the sun today and got a nasty burn
And I play my guitar

There’s an advertising agency that recently discovered
If you see a certain color while you hear a certain sound
Then your brain secretes this chemical to break down your resistance, and
Make you more susceptible to what it is they’re selling
For persuasion I still like candlelight and wine
And I play my guitar

In the deep and distant future they will build a perfect rocketship
To lap the speed of light, and travel slowly back in time
And maybe they’ll eventually come around and visit me
And seek out my impressions, and seek out my opinions

And I’ll play my guitar
And I’ll play my guitar
And I’ll play my guitar

(lyrics: Dan Bern)