[Intro: The Stupendium]
Steel, iron, nuts and bolts
Poor man’s gold in rusted vaults
Scrap, tin, wheels and gears
Shift by shift and year by year
Rod, beam, sheet and plate
Ironclad, you sealed your fate
All that shines shall fade in time
Welded put the day you signed
[Verse 1: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
The production line
You better do your best, forget about sunshine
‘Cause you won’t see it where you’re going
And the only thing you know is
You won’t get to have your lunch on time
Or ever again, ‘cause every second you spend
That isn’t meeting an end that an executive pеnned
Is another debt that you rеnder that’ll let them extend
Upon the length of your tenure where you’re ever condemned
Well, would you look at that, life’s coming thick and fast, I run and
Zig and zag amid the tat, pick and pack, bric-a-brac
Click and drag, mix and match, stick a stack in my sack
‘Til it could fill a skip of scrap then bring it back quick as a flash
We’re scrappy and resilient, we’re happy and we’re diligent
But that’s just if you’re listening to marketing transmissions
Contractually itinerant, a dastardly predicament
Entrapped within a system hauling scrap for the omnipotent
Voices in the radio that point us in which way to go
The base we’re excavating, what we’re paid and then the pay we owe
Uncertain of the purpose to the service that we’re slaving over
Purge the lunar surface of its worth to meet the daily quote
[Chorus 1: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
Some of us are living to work
Some of us are working to live
Some of us are making while others are just taking
And some of us are dying to give
[Verse 2: Dan Bull, The Stupendium & Both]
Whoop! Yay! Hooray! Another day at the office
Slaving away and generating the profits
Heading straight for the pockets of the laziest bosses
If it wasn’t for me, then they’d be making a loss, it’s
A struggle working double shifts, selling my soul
So my landlord doesn't have to do any at all
I’m clearly very important, while you’re merely a drone
Giving me steady employment just to dwell in a hole
That I can barely afford, belly unfilled like Oliver Twist
Begging for more, I don’t want to exist
No longer stomaching it, wanna be somebody different
But I’m stuck as it is, so stuff it, double my shifts
Rub out the family time in your diary, erase it all
They’ll only hire me if I’ll be reliably available
Yet I appear, clearly entirely replaceable
The irony’s I find it to be kind of inspirational
Anxiety’ll make you more inclined to reach a greater goal
Until you find me crying quietly against the wall
I miss my wife, I miss my kids
I miss my life, can’t live like this!
Perhaps for once if salary might rise in line with rent
We’d have the funds to rise and shine, not rise in line, content
To sacrifice our family lives to those on high, hell bent
On empires founded on the thousands drowned in the cement
[Pre-Chorus 1: The Stupendium]
I am the very model of a model employee
I never leave my shuttle, can’t afford to pay those fees
My overtime does overtime, I work nine days a week
And I never hit that bottle ‘till it’s time to take a pee
[Chorus 2: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
Some of us are making a killing
While some are barely making a living
Is a life worth saving without life savings?
It’s a nine-to-five, twenty five-to-life in prison
[Verse 3: Dan Bull, The Stupendium & Both]
Lift off, tick tock, the big clock’s a-tickin’
Drift in, dropped off at the drop ship’s position
Sod tip top condition, a tip’s what you live in
Drop shipping top tip - tips will not be given
With this cost of living what do lives cost?
Well, the customer ain’t fussed over the lives lost
We’re discounted, under the counter, half off
In stocks, at the gallows for the price drop
To rock bottom, ba-da-da-dum
Sing the jingle, give a whistle, here’s your lot, plod on
It’s official, sacrificial, sing the company song
‘Fore they bop the stop-button on your oxygen
Two guys moonlight on a new moon nightly
Tryna find loot like: "Ooh that’ll do nicely”
Lamp, cookie mold, jar, fish, stop sign
Pan, whoopie, gold bar, gift box, Mine!
No, mine!
No, Mine!
[Verse 4: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
Should you be hurt in our place of employment
It’ll be worse than a band-aid and some ointment
There isn’t a nurse with whom to make an appointment
There’s really just certain doom - painfully poignant
Each day tossed upon the scrapheap
Struggling to meet pay, care to mind the gap, cheap
Labour can be replaced when there are fatalities
Several men a week slayed, tumbling from the gantries
In what kind of dimension is debris so decrepit
Worth more than all the lives amongst the men you send to get it?
The minions paid a pittance from the millions you inherit
And then billed for the equipment ‘fore they get to spent the credits
[Interlude: Dan Bull]
Have you had an accident at work that wasn’t your fault? No, you haven’t, it absolutely was your fault!
[Chorus 3: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
Some of us are living to work
Some of us are working to live
Some of us are making, while others are just taking
And some of us are dying to give
We all bought the production line
We all toe the production line
We all march in production line
We all signed the production line
[Bridge: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
It’s a hell of a show, better the devil you know
Just another shift, try to keep a grip
Haven’t slept a wink and my vision starts to drift
We’re here to sell you your soul, next day and ready to go
Filling up the ship, just another trip
Maddened, on the brink, in no position to resist
The wheels of progress, they turn, so get ahead or go home
I got a quota to meet or else it’s over for me
And when my rota’s complete then I can hopefully leave
Just never question what burns to run the engines below
We were sold on a dream but now they won’t let us sleep
Take a moment to grieve and you’ll owe them a fee
[Verse 5: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
My school careers adviser couldn’t be any nicer
She was just like: “Might as well give up and die, bruh”
It isn’t that likely we’ll experience retirement
When staying alive’s a minimum requirement
I’ve trained, I’ve tried, ‘till I’m strained, I’m tired
I’d trade my trade for a train driver’s
But I’m afraid that the end of the line
Isn’t a place I’ll arrive ‘till the end of my life
[Pre-Chorus 2: The Stupendium]
I am the very model of a model employee
‘Cause I’m used to being toyed with by those far bigger than me
Painfully aware my fate to bear’s as cog in a machine
Just one more face cast off to space for products on a screen
[Refrain: Dan Bull]
Production line
Production line
Production line
Production line
Production line
Production line
Production line
Production line
We all bought the production line
We all toe the production line
We all march in production line
We all signed the production line
[Chorus 4: The Stupendium & Dan Bull]
Some of us are making a killing
While some are barely making a living
Is a life worth saving without life savings?
It’s a nine-to-five, twenty five-to-life in prison
Some of us are living to work
Some of us are working to live
Some of us are making while others are just taking
And some of us are dying to give
It’s a hell of a show, better the devil you know
We’re here to sell you your soul, next day and ready to go
We all signed the production line