Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  



The Plutonium Song

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1975 Schroder Music Company, renewed 2003. a.k.a. "Plutonium." A portion of a rehearsal of this song appears in the documentary about Malvina, Love It Like a Fool.


Plutonium is a business,
The business people say.
A cupful of Plutonium
Could sweep the world away.
But atom plants are business
With Plutonium on the side,
And business will keep going
Although all the world has died.

Chorus:
Make way for business,
They go where they will go.
If business wants Plutonium,
Who's going to say them no.

The AEC announces
A Pluto-economy,
Plutonium on railroad cars
And on the ships at sea.
Railroad cars they jump the tracks
And freighters they collide,
And business will keep going
Although all the world has died.

(Chorus)

There never was Plutonium
Since all the world began,
But now it's a by-product
Of the cleverness of Man.
Half-life twenty thousand years
And there's no place to hide,
And business will keep going
Although all the world has died.

(Chorus)

A whiff of that Plutonium
No city can survive,
But P.R. men can make it smell
Like Chanel Number Five.
I sing this song to warn us all
While we still move around,
Cause business goes the way it goes
Unless we cut them down.

Last Chorus:
Somebody's got to stop them,
Children, that's me and you.
And if some of us go down fighting,
If some of us go down fighting,
If some of us go down fighting,
That's a cleaner way to go.


Malvina Reynolds songbook(s) in which the music to this song appears:
---- [none]

Other place(s) where the music to this song appears:
---- Broadside No. 130 (January-March 1976)

Malvina Reynolds recording(s) on which this song is performed:
---- Malvina Reynolds (2007)


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