Jeffrey Lewis
Keep it Chill! (in the East Vill)
It’s a real bad time to take a trip to China
Or a road that leads to Rome
But what’s the hurry, cause all that worry
Is coming right here to our home
And now it came ashore and now it’s at our door
It’s comin’ for us downtrodden masses
And if you’re short of breath, it’s that old black death
Gettin’ medieval on our modern asses
And the human race is getting put in place
I’ve prob’ly caught a case. I think I touched my face!
I’m cryin’ Holy Geez won’t ya spare us please
This beastie boy’s NOT licensed to ill
But for now I’ve just got to chill
Stay alive indoors for one day more and…
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Well times were tough, but we had enough
And my friends mostly got by
But can’t no one hire us, cuz there’s a virus
So now we’ll go broke or we’ll die
And I’ve heard some say
What’s on the way is a civilized collapse
And you can keep pretending it can keep on bending
But there’s an ending when it snaps
And then the teeming hordes that can’t take no more is gonna loot the stores and then they’re coming for us
And we can’t leave town cuz we’re all locked down
And there’s blood that’s gonna spill
But for now I’ve just got to chill
Stay alive indoors for one day more and
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Keep it chill in the East Vill
I know right now we can’t go out
And there’s no one in the street
And the thing with that’s that all the rats’re
Gonna run outta snacks to eat
And it won’t take long till they’re a billion strong
And you know that rats ain’t dumb
They’re sure the food they’re missing’s
Now stored in our kitchens
So look out, here they come!
So each Virus life we SAVE
Is gonna die in a mighty rat tidal wave
But I say oh my goodness, if we’d understood this
There’s things we could do still
But for now I’ve just got to chill
Stay alive indoors for one day more and…
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Keep it chill in the East Vill
And while that’s going down in my home town
The orange clown who runs DC
Sees there’s perfect cause to declare martial laws
And pause elections indefinitely
And he calls the banks, and says let’s all join ranks
Unless their money might get shared
So all his Klu Klux kranks patrol the streets with tanks
Saying “Behave and you’ll be spared”
Then you can’t send mail out
You won’t get no bailout
And there’s no planes in jail now
And no way to sail out
And if the internet’s not a mem’ry yet
It’ll get surveilled out-right at will
But for now I’ve just got to chill
Stay alive indoors for one day more and…
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Keep it chill in the East Vill
But I do understand that on the other hand
There’s a lot that might go great
Maybe a wide alliance will respect more science
In every nation and each state
We’ll take total warning about global warming
And when the virus soon blows out
We’ll have a full-on call for healthcare for all
And better safety nets rolled out
With old ways on freeze and new priorities
This could be just what sees us
Set things more at ease
I’ll put my mind at rest and just hope for the best
Cuz it don’t even seem so strange
It’s happened once or twice that when there’s times of crisis, giant good things come from change
And it could heal the earth to not put money first
And this will sure slow greenhouse gasses
Right now this makes things greener
And makes the whole world cleaner and we’ll all see that when this passes
And we all know this will pass
And from Wuhan out to Texas
Information is infectious
And when this phase is behind us
We’ll catch a worldwide case of kindness
There’s at least a chance we will
But for now we know the drill…
Stay alive indoors for one day more and…
Keep it chill in the East Vill
Keep it chill in the West Vill
And keep it chill in Nashville
And keep it chill in the LA hills
And keep it cool in Wuhan
And keep it cool in Iran
We’ll all do what we can
Fate laughs at all plans
So keep it cool in all lands
Make sure everyone understands
Just stay in and wash your hands
And we’ll keep keeping cool in all lands