Well I think it’s fine building jumbo planes / Or taking a ride on a cosmic train / Switch on summer from a slot machine / Yes, get what you want to if you want ’cause you can get anything

I know we’ve come a long way / We’re changing day to day / But tell me, where do the children play?

Well, you roll on roads over fresh green grass / For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas / And you make them long, and you make them tough / But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off

No, I know we’ve come a long way / We’re changing day to day / But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you’ve cracked the sky scrapers fill the air / But will you keep on building higher ’til there’s no more room up there? / Will you make us laugh? Will you make us cry? / Will you tell us when to live? Will you tell us when to die?

I know, I know we’ve come a long way / We’re changing day to day / But tell me, where do the children play?

[By Cat Stevens © Island Records / A&M Records, 1970]