So, what I'm saying is, I think this
I'm trying to share with you a certain style of life and an attitude to life and an insight
I've taken you on one side and said

[Chorus]
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
There's a big deception going on, and you're involved in it
But I just thought you ought to know it

I'm terribly puzzled about the way people go out of their way to dis-enjoy themselves
It take so much trouble about it
And all around you have only to look, you see this perfect passion
For making the world look grizzly
And it isn't only shop builders and garage owners who do this kind of thing
It's also people who profess to be painters, they're actually using excrements for painting in Paris, today
On the theory that the world is shot to pieces, and that since the artist is a representative of his times, he ought to show the times as they really are, as a social critic
So, he makes the most weird, he paints Campbell's soup cans, and he makes music that shrieks and screams
He just goes out of his way to make it sound as ugly as he possibly can manage
And the ingenuity's about that is endless, because that is the times, he is the critic you see?

[Chorus]
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
There's a big deception going on, and you're involved in it
But I just thought you ought to know it
Let's take the character of the Pied Piper, the person who brings you an invitation to dance
I say then you see, „There is going to be a dance this evening and I would like you all to come.“ that's the spirit in which I invite you to a seminar
I am not inviting you in the spirit of saying, „No, we're going to have to discuss some very grave matters, and you ought to be awake to all these things and arouse your social conscious.“
When you get through with all that, then what?
When you get through with all that, then what?
When you get through with feeding the hungry and clothing the naked
And we are making great strides with automation and technology in abolishing poverty totally
Then what are we gonna do?
Then what are we gonna do?
Well you see if you've got all these people clothed, and fed, and so on, and then they say, "Well now what next?"
If you've got a kind of Quakerish state of mind, you don't know what to do
Well, feed and clothe somebody else, get busy
But then where is that leading?

[Chorus]
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
There's a big deception going on, and you're involved in it
But I just thought you ought to know it

[Chorus]
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
Listen kids, things aren't what they seem, don't be fooled
There's a big deception going on, and you're involved in it
But I just thought you ought to know it