This is a very personal song for me. I have heard so many times people exclaiming that world owed them something. Life isn’t fair and that is a fact, if it was the good would be venerated and evil would be punished. There would be world peace etc. Self pity is something we all have to deal with, it is a fact that some people have life handed on a plate while others have to fight for it.

I found myself long term unemployed after I had left school only to make the wrong career choice, then finding myself either too young or too old for jobs, plus I did not drive at that time. With unemployment at that time was at a high, especially in the North East, I was left with a lot of time to think Parent’s didn’t understand, they had had the luxury of being born in a time when jobs where plentiful and as they say, it is easier to get a job when you have one.

Verse 1
Do you think the world owes you a living?
Do you think the world holds down the poor?
Well take it from me it owes you nothing,
what does it take for you to see?

Verse 2
Everyday you face these four walls.
You’re living in the prison of you’re own damned mind.
You say it ain’t fair that you got nothing.
With that attitude you never will.

Chorus
Its a cruel world in which we’re living in
and there’s no hope for a man who don’t fight,
in any way that he can.
Its a cruel world and who’s to save you?
Its a cruel world, its a cruel, cruel world

Verse 3
So you want to make your fortune?
Well first you got to sell your soul.
Even so, it ain’t that easy.
Just cause you think it, don’t make it so.

Chorus
Its a cruel world in which we’re living in
and there’s no hope for a man who don’t fight,
in any way that he can.
Its a cruel world and who’s to save you?
Its a cruel world, its a cruel, cruel world

Mid
Everyday’s the same and before you blink your eyes another year has passed/
When I was at school, I used to think it’d be so easy.
Living on skid row, its very soon you learn that life is hard.
Everyday’s the same, but you feel a little lower.
Waking up to the day, just another boring day.
No money in your pocket, no work that you can get,
you’re living your life off the state.
The people who have the jobs,
well they say that its easy enough.
They say you’re just a scrounger, living it so good,
when you’re living your life in disgrace.

Chorus
Its a cruel world in which we’re living in
and there’s no hope for a man who don’t fight,
in any way that he can.
Its a cruel world and who’s to save you?
Its a cruel world, its a cruel, cruel world

(c)1984 Words & Music John Robert Hunter