Wasteland

I saw the best of my generation playing pinball
Make-up on, all caked up 
Looking like some kind of china doll
With all of Adolf Hitler's moves down cold
As they stood up in front 
Of a rock and roll band
And always moving upward and ever upward
To this gentle golden promised land
With the smartest of them all 
Moonlighting as a word processor
And the strongest of them all 
Checking IDs outside a saloon
And the prettiest of all 
Taking off her clothes
In front of men 
Whose eyes look like they were in some little hick town 
Near Omaha 
Watching the police chief 
Run his car off the side of a bridge

I saw a men with dreams 
Like the ones I'd had
Beg quarters outside the Seven-Eleven
Till it got so they didn't affect me anymore
Than the mailboxes I'd passed 
'Cept that sometimes
I'd put somthing in the mailbox

I'd had the wind at my back 
Now I felt it cold in my face
And for an awful long time now 
You were the only one who ever 
Called me late at night 
And I really never noticed 
Till after you stopped calling 
And the emptiness 
And silence 
Got so heavy

Broken up in the wasteland 
Broken up in the promised land
Broken up in Disneyland 
Broken up in the plastic land
Broken up in the wasteland 
Broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the wasteland

I saw dead Marilyn Monroe 
Strung up on every street corner in Hollywood 
Like some two bit whore 
Offering a discount rate
And I wondered how Joe Dimaggio felt
I saw dead James Dean's ghost 
Wandering the sidewalk looking troubled 
And I wondered how his mama felt
I saw signs that said