Serve Yourself - John Lennon

Serve yourself (anthology version) - john lennon - home recording (1980)

Intro:

You say you found jesus christ
Hes the only one
You say youve found buddha
Sittin in the sun
You say you found mohammed
Facin to the east
You say you found krishna
Dancin in the streets

Well theres somethin missing in this God almighty stew
And its your mother (your mother, don't forget your mother, lad)
You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do it for you
You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do it for you
Well you may believe in devils and you may believe in lords
But if you don't go out and serve yourself, lad, aint no room service here

Its still the same old story
A bloody holy war
A fight for love and glory
Aint gonna study war no more
A fight for God and country
Were gonna set you free
Well put you back in the stone age
If you wont be like me - get it?

You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do for you
You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do for you
Well you may believe in devils and you may believe in lords

But christ, youre gonna have to serve yourself and that's all there is to it.
So get right back here its in the bloody fridge. God, when I was a kid.
Didn't have stuff like this, tv-fuckin dinners and all that crap.
You fuckin kids are all the fuckin same! Want a fuckin car now...
Lucky to have a pair of shoes!

You tell me you found jesus christ
Well that's great and hes the only one
You say you just found buddha
Sittin on his ass in the sun
You say you found mohammed
Kneeling on a bloody carpet facin the east
You say you found krishna
With a bald head dancin in the street (well, christ, now youre
Being heard)

You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do for you
You got to serve yourself
Aint nobody gonna do for you (that's right, lad, you better get that straight
Into your fuckin head)
You got to serve yourself (you know that, who else is gonna do it for you, it
Aint me I tell you that)
Well, you may believe in jesus, and you may believe in marx
And you may believe in marks and spencers and you may believe in bloody
Woolworths
But theres something missing in this whole bloody stew
And its your mother, your poor bloody mother (she worked for you in the
Back bedroom, full of piss and shit and fuckin midwives. God, you can't
Forget that awful moment, you know. You should have been in the bloody
War, lad, and you would know all about it. Well, Ill tell you something.)

Its still the same old story
A holy bloody war, you know, with the pope and all that stuff
A fight for love and glory
Aint gonna study no more war
A fight for God and country, and the queen and all that
Were gonna set you free
Bomb you back into the fuckin stone age
If you wont be like me, you know, get down on your knees and pray

Well theres somethin missing in this God almighty stew
And its your goddamn mother you dirty little git, now
Get in there and wash yer ears!

Note: [this song] was right after dylans song [...] you
Gotta serve someone, you know - the lord, I suppose, you know.
So then he was kind of upset about that and it was a dialogue,
You know. In that sense its fun, I mean you can hear it was
Fun. He wasnt seriously against it. He showed his anger in
A way but also [...] his sense of humour. (yoko ono, 1998)