The 20th Century

[Verse 1]
The 20th Century was a train
Sleek and fast and so streamlined
And steel and diesel power unchained
Cigars and oysters and black shoes shined
And the twentieth century is already gone
Come to think of it, the millennium is too
And all those years and the buck stops here
Except I fear it's not worth as much this year

[Verse 2]
Thomas Jefferson was a man
Didn't have to grow up to be President
For no woman had to vote
Nor any man of African descent
And two thousand years of the golden rule
And we still keep illegal aliens out of school
And someone's gotta wash dishes and clean toilets too
And someone's gotta play football and someone's gotta sing the blues

[Verse 3]
This little experiment of ours
Pretty damn new and shaky so far
We have the freedom to hang out in bars
To buy shiny new guns or shiny new cars
And there's no trains left to make run on time
But that's not gonna keep them from tryin'
And how we gonna keep 'em down on Broadway?
Let's try religion, sports and a lottery a day

[Verse 4]
This car screaming down the road
A rebel flag and talk show overload
Passes a school bus on the right
Racing that train to a wreck tonight
And two thousand and one candles to blow
And twenty centuries down and one to grow
Except for ten days taken away by Pope Gregory
I lost ten days in college, they didn't name a calendar after me
And this is the America Columbus discovered
And yeah, the Vikings could have discovered this one too
And the Indians fought the Braves in the World Series
And let's get serious and open another brew

[Outro]
The 20th Century was a train