Sharks In The Gene Pool * Lyrics

(WORDS: BIAFRA. MUSIC: KERR, WRIGHT, WRIGHT, BIAFRA)

First the urine test - now this
First the urine test - now this!
Why do all the best technology advances
Always wind up in the worst possible hands

Through DNA analysis
We may one day conquer disease
A "perfect" baby every time
By mapping and manipulating people's genes

Cosmetic surgery before you're born
Know in advance what you'll die of
Everyone is useful and the same
Swimmers bred like horses for Olympic teams

Life insurance? Be serious!
You have to get your genes screened first
Toxic chemicals? Fumes at work?
No sweat! Get a gene transplant

Otherwise you'll lose your job
Do you wanna wind up out in the streets?
And raise your children in campgrounds and shelters?
And beg to eat

There's too many sharks in the gene pool
Too many chewed up bodies on the shore
Too many sharks in the gene pool
Too many leftovers rotting all around us

First the urine test - now this!
Why do the best technological advances
Keep winding up as...

Uniform hybrid species
For fresh-looking pest-proof food
An apple can sit on the shelf for years
When we irradiate the molecules

But where did the nutrition go?
And what's taken it's place?
Slipshod tampering with science
Out of control factory farm eugenics

Slaughterhouses in lowa
Filled with tumor-infested cows
Failed experiments hidden 'til sold
To your local school lunch program

Grade D, but edible
Our food, our life, our attitude
Suffocating in what we refuse to recycle
Time bombs fester in every town

Billions of dollars spent every year
Searching for a cure for cancer
Why not spend that money instead
To wipe out pollution that causes the cancer

There's too many sharks in the gene pool
Too many screw-ups washing on shore
Too many sharks in the gene pool
Too many preventable accidents among us

Meryl Streep... where are you?

Where did American know how go
Why do Japanese build better stereos
Is it 'cos our best minds can't get a job
Except when they help make toys for the Pentagon

Germ warfare, more bombs
Germ warfare, more bombs
Our whole economy's based on fear and death
How long can we get away with this?

And we live here

Instead of better health we get A.I.D.S.
Instead of nourishment we get steroids
The most popular selections at celebrity sperm banks
Are sports heroes

Gap widens between the haves and the have-nots
Rich and powerful breed only with themselves
We all know what happens when too much of this happens
The offspring just ain't real bright

How else can you explain
The erosion of talent and the vision thing
To the point where the best that they can come up with
For our future role models and leaders

Are vicious blind machines
Like Albert Gore and Dan Quayle
Why do the best solutions and advances
Get thrown away in the worst possible hands

There's too many sharks in the gene pool
Too many carcasses washing on shore
Too many sharks in the gene pool
Avalanche of toxic guts all around us

We're incompetent as human beings
Even worse at playing God

Wrong people
Right place
Ruling class
Gets the only pass
To board the Ark
For outer space
In 2001
What about this place?