(Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero)

(Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing under)

It was about six o'clock in the evening, the sun was setting
And darkness had just began to fill the sky
When I first touched down on the surface of Planet E
It was a heavily populated planet which had many cities
Mostly separated by blacks and whites, but we won’t say blacks and whites
We'll call one Group A, the other Group B
While walking through one of the cities I ran into a group of kids
They called themselves a posse
They were bad, you could tell
They all had the front of their hats turned to the side
They walked with a limp
I thought something was wrong
They looked mad at the world
But then again so did everyone in this city
I wonder why?

As I walked deeper and deeper into the city I saw many stores
Most of them said Liquors
Now mind you this was a very very very very very popular place
People gathered around constantly going in and out
Trading liquor for pay
Who got the pay? Hmm, well eventually Group A
Now standing on the corner I saw a brother called Raheem
Although I heard his mother call him Petey
Now Petey was holding a 40 ounce bottle in the palm of his left hand
Now Petey was drinking the same thing in the same place
Talking about the same old shit around the same time last year
Just letting the days go by
(Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing under)

Letting the days go by, as if he had accomplished every dream and every goal
He ever had in his lifetime
As if he had money to burn and then some to spend
Letting the days go by as if he had a mansion, a yacht
A big fat knot in his pocket, but he didn't
I couldn’t relate, didn't understand, nor could I comprehend
Could it be because the economical system
Was meant to keep him and his group
From having the self-motivation
For living and sharing a more finer way of life?
Or could it also because the group that lived in this city
Failed to overcome the obstacles we all must overcome
In this great big crazy game of life

(Same as it ever was)
It's the same as it ever was
(Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was)

(Letting the days go by, let the water hold me
Once in a lifetime, water flowing under)
So I proceeded to the next city
Now this was a much cleaner city
A city where everyone had a very fine house with two cats in the yard
Saying life used to be so hard
A city where you can't go where the others go
'Cos you don't look like they do
And if you did you were stopped and asked to see some kind of identification card
Now this was a city where people greet each other with a smile
They were concerned about the welfare of one another
As they bobbed their heads to their ancient rock 'n' roll
But this is not the first planet that’s been touched ground on
And every other planet in the universe seems to play dope music
With a beat called soul

(T minus one minute and counting
All systems go
The sound suppression water system has now been armed
Pre-lift-off water will be released in T minus 16 seconds
T minus 48 seconds
Solid Rocket Booster Development Flight Instrumentation recorder has gone to record mode
And the main propulsion system liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen outboard fill valves have been closed
Can we not go on auto sequence start
T minus 31 seconds
Sequence start
We have a go for auto sequence start
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero)