Released: May 31, 1993
Songwriter: Kurt Julian Weill Bertolt Brecht
Producer: Jonathon Ruffle Pet Shop Boys
[Verse 1]
You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
[Verse 2]
You lot, who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for all time how the world is run
However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
[Pre-Chorus]
So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving
[Chorus]
What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
[Verse 3]
You say the girls may strip with your permission
You draw the line dividing art from sin
So first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
[Verse 4]
You lot, who bank on your desires and our disgust
Should learn for all time how the world is run
Whatever lies you tell, however much you twist
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
[Pre-Chorus]
So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving
[Chorus]
What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
[Interlude]
[Outro]
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
[Verse 2]
You lot, who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for all time how the world is run
However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
[Pre-Chorus]
So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving
[Chorus]
What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
[Verse 3]
You say the girls may strip with your permission
You draw the line dividing art from sin
So first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins
[Verse 4]
You lot, who bank on your desires and our disgust
Should learn for all time how the world is run
Whatever lies you tell, however much you twist
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
[Pre-Chorus]
So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving
[Chorus]
What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
[Interlude]
[Outro]
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
more tracks from the album
Alternative
- Decadence
- Was That What It Was?
- In the Night
- Some Speculation
- A New Life
- Your Funny Uncle
- One of the Crowd
- What Keeps Mankind Alive?
- Girls & Boys (Live in Rio)
- I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)
- Miserablism
- Do I Have To?
- I Want a Dog (B-Side Version)
- The Sound of the Atom Splitting (Extended Mix) [7" Version]
- Losing My Mind
- Paninaro
- Jack the Lad
- We All Feel Better in the Dark
- If Love Were All (Bitter Sweet)
- Violence (Haçienda Version)
- Music for Boys
- Too Many People
- Hey, Headmaster
- That’s My Impression (Disco Mix)
- Don Juan
- Euroboy
- Bet She’s Not Your Girlfriend
- You Know Where You Went Wrong
- It Must Be Obvious
- Shameless
- A Man Could Get Arrested (Bobby Orlando Version)
From the albums
- Alternative (1995)
- Introspective: Further Listening 1988 – 1989 (2001)
Pet Shop Boys popular songs
- West End Girls
- It’s a Sin
- Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)
- Go West
- Always On My Mind
- Being Boring
- Suburbia
- What Have I Done to Deserve This?
- Domino Dancing
- The Pop Kids
- Left to My Own Devices
- Rent
- New York City Boy
- Love etc.
- Love is a Bourgeois Construct
- Burning the heather
- Dreamland
- All Over the World (This Is A Dub)
- After All
- Fugitive (Richard X Extended Mix)
- So Hard
- Breathing Space
- Radiophonic
- Memory of the Future