Lyrics Ballad of Gracious Living - Raul Julia

I've heard them Praising single-minded spirits
Whose empty stomaches show they live for knowledge
In rat-infasted shacks awash with ullage.
I'm all for culture, but there are some limits.
The simple life is fine for those in suits.
I d'ont find, for my part, that it attracts.
There's not a bird from here to Halifax
Would peck at such unappetising fruits.
What use if freedom? None, to judge from this.
One must live well to know what living is.

The dashing sort who cuts precarious capers
And go and risk their necks just for the pleasure
And swagger home and write it up at leisure
And flog the story to the sunday papers-
If you coukld see how cold they get at night
Sullen, with chilly wife, climbing to bed
And they dream they're going to get ahead
And see the future stretching out of sight-
Now tell me, who would choose to live like this?
One must live well to know what living is.

There's plenty that they have. I know I lack it
And ought to join their splendid isolation
But when I give it more consideration
I told myself: my friend, that's not your racket.
Suffering ennobles, but it can depress.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
You once were poor and lonely, wise and brave.
You ought to try and bite off rather less.
The search for happinness boils down to this:
One must live well to know what living is.