The Kinks: Nobody Gives

Sung by The Tramp

I can't understand why everybody's quarreling,
Nobody gives in case they lose face,
And everybody's guilty and everybody's innocent,
And the fact of it is nobody gives any more.

It's the same throughout all history,
Nobody gives unless they receive,
And nobody trusts or is willing to believe
And nobody gives or is willing to concede.

Back in nineteen hundred and twenty-five
There were thousands of people struggling to survive.
There was hunger, unemployment and poverty,
Then in 1926 they decided to be free
So they all went on strike and
The workers told the unions, who blamed it on the government,
The politicians blamed it on the strikers and the militants,
Everybody's guilty and everybody's innocent,
But the fact of it is nobody gives any more.

Back in nineteen hundred and thirty-nine
There were scores of German military waiting in a line,
And the Fatherland wanted what the world wouldn't give,
And then Hitler decided he could take what was his,
So they all went to war and said
Kill all the left-wing intellectuals,
Annihilate the Jews and wipe out their race,
Eliminate the weak because they're ineffectual,
And the fact of it is nobody gives any more.

I'm only sitting here watching it all go on
And listening to both sides.
Yeah, why can't we talk it out,
Why can't we sort it out,
We'll work it out if we try.
Why can't we sit down and work out a compromise,
Why not negotiate and try to be civilised?
I'll tell you why, because nobody gives a damn.
Nobody listens and no one will understand.
Yet I'm wondering, sitting here wondering,
And listening to both sides.
Why can't we work it out?
Why can't we sort it out?
We'll work it out if we try.
Why can't we sit down and work out a compromise,
Why not negotiate and try to be civilised?
I'll tell you why, because nobody gives a damn.
Nobody listens and no one will understand.
Yet, I'm wondering, sitting here wondering,
Yet I'm wondering, sitting here wondering
Listening to both sides.
Nobody gives, nobody gives, nobody gives.

The workers told the unions who blamed it on the government,
The politicians blamed it on the strikers and the militants,
Everybody's guilty and everybody's innocent.

Nobody gives. Nobody gives a damn any more.
The politicians, unions, workers and the militants,
The fact of it is nobody gives any more