“I originally recorded this in the 80s. This version uses a significantly different rhythm guitar, a less in-yer-face slide guitar, and vocal harmonies that aren’t too different from the original recording. A cheerful rock ‘n’ roll-ish ditty about the breakdown of the global economy, written in the very early 80s. These days I wonder which will go first: the economy, or the globe.
This was the one song of mine that I got to sing lead on with the legendary Flying Piglets, being otherwise relegated to harmonies, lead and acoustic guitar duties.”
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Lyrics
Paper City
I woke up with my mind’s eye facing your direction:
I looked hard and I saw you needed help.
You’re choking on paper and tape and legislation,
But you can’t produce one thing to help yourself.
(Ch.) Paper city at the heart of a paper empire:
You’ve got strings to pull, you’ve got wires all over the earth.
Sky-climbing parasite, concrete and paper jungle,
You’ve got money to burn, but I know you’d rather freeze to death.
You’ve got stacks of stocks and shares and bonds:
You’ve got telephone and telex, databank and dateline too.
But you can’t produce as much as one lead pencil,
Or a bar of soap, or a rubber band to pull you through.
The media twitch at the flash of a freemason’s handshake:
Speeches are made and the punters gather round;
Paper politicians and faceless company men,
Taking the pulse of an ailing paper pound.
I bet you know just what you’re worth on paper:
When the market crumbles, what will that do to you?
So many cold people don’t own the earth they lie in:
Will you be all right in your green-lined paper tomb?
Paper city at the heart of a bankrupt empire:
Your towers get higher as your assets hit new lows.
Nose-diving parasite, I wouldn’t mind you dying,
But you’ll take so many with you when you go.
credits
Guitar, slide guitar, vocals, words and music by David A. Harley.
David A. Harley 1949 – 2025
TRAVEL WORDS 
Very Dylan protest era. It’s not got any better, has it? xx
With all these oligarchs running everything it’s definitely got worse.
A cheerful ditty? I think not! But good to listen to, nonetheless.
OK, maybe not exactly cheerful, but more upbeat than melancholic?
Hmm, I’ll have to listen again before reaching a conclusion!
The lyrics are depressingly accurate, and I do always enjoy the slide guitar.
Best wishes, Pete. x
I have come to the conclusion that he never wrote anything very cheerful! And some of the traditional ballads are extremely gloomy. And yet he was full of humour.
Conditions haven’t improved a lot, have they?
Not at all. He did update the lyrics slightly recently to reflect 21st century technology a little better.
A cheerful … ditty about the breakdown of the global economy is something of a contradiction in terms!
He wasn’t enthusiastic about the way the world was going.
Even worse now 🙁