The Car Won't Go

We evidence the first few steps of feet in clay, now set in stone
Uncovered by an era raid on people we can call our own
The modern hand in tandem with a primitive but perfect tool
Can scrape away where history has turned each fossil into fuel

And out of these unknown remains have come the busy centuries
A concentrated age that turned the theories into certainties
Our task is just the same but more important than it's ever been
How can we step from A to B and keep alive the evergreen?

From sole to stirrup - brilliant! The most important step of all
Now man could race and jump and learn that we move on each time we fall
We forged ahead and made a case for power greater than a horse
So head of man built head of steam to build a locomotive force

Another milestone quickly reached so let's enjoy this life at B
But when we hear it's better there we'd better find a way to C
The engineers should have a plan, we trust in them because they know
Their expert diagnosis says the car should go

The car should go, the car should go, the car should go
The car should go, oh no the car should go, the car should go go go go-go-go

But while the wheels of motion turn and we grow used to bigger yields
The luxury is nothing to the friction felt in local fields
The corn that grew to feed us all now fills the mouth with nagging noise
And lubricates the strident throat: we don't need food, we need more toys

The clouds descend to blur the view so we can't see where we've been led
And squinting through the murky grey we grope for better times ahead
We thought of fitting dynamos and brighter lamps to give us hope
But when the mist turned into smog we found the light-bulbs couldn't cope

The paint has peeled, the steel is rust, the tires have burned to ugly smoke
The mirror used to scan the view but then the knob that moved it broke
The steering wheel has locked up tight and won't respond to worn-out hands
The engineer has tried but there is no one left who understands

The car is now a wrinkled beast, its old exhausted engine dead
We plug in diagnostic kits but they confirm the things we said
So step by step we lose our way, we lose our minds and all we know
And from our pole we lose our race because the car won't go

The car won't go, the car won't go, the car won't go
The car won't go, oh no the car won't go, the car won't go go go
The car won't go, the car won't go