Next Year People - Colin Hay

You can’t live without hope that things will change for the better

You can’t live without the dream of someone reading your letter

We’ve had dust storms before and spit out the dirt

We’ve had droughts before but none quite like this

We’ve had winds that cut up your face all to pieces

Black blizzards that stripped all the paint off your car

Fires like twisters no sisters of mercy

They come with no warning only that sound

God is roaring drunk and out on the town

Next year everything will come good

The rains they will fall and we’ll dance on the hood

We’ll fill up our bellies with plentiful food

We’ll eat drink and be merry

Yeah next year people wait and see

We’re next year people you and me

Henry got hit by lightning twice in the head

He stood and walked away, we thought he was dead

Now he talks funny says he’s wired to the sky

He walks for miles and miles and no one knows why

The bank men they came and wrote things down on paper

We all went outside and just stood around

We were glad when they left they brought nothing but heartache

And the seed we had planted it stayed in the ground

Next year everything will come good

The rains they will fall and we’ll dance on the hood

We’ll fill up our bellies with plentiful food

We’ll eat drink and be merry

Yeah next year people wait and see

We’re next year people you and me

Dry endless plains and we suffered the worst

Are we being punished or are we just cursed

It’s almost ten years and no drop of rain

Only mocking blue skies bringing more of the same

Our mother was crying when they sent us to stay

With strangers in a town and we both ran away

Back to the dust and see Henry again

We’re creatures of habit don’t you know

And one day we’ll reap what we sow

Next year everything will come good

The rains they will fall and we’ll dance on the hood

We’ll fill up our bellies with plentiful food

We’ll eat drink and be merry

Yeah next year people wait and see

We’re next year people you and me

Yeah next year people wait and see

We’re next year people you and me