Story Behind The Song

Theme Park Theme is the story of an unemployed man who has witnessed the closing and demolition of the furniture factory where he'd worked since high school so that a theme park could be built in its place. The lights and sounds of an amusement park offer little to joy to the man, as he struggles with his ongoing unemployment. In the last verse, he points out the irony of American productivity and the employment it generates being replaced with places to spend - not earn - honest wages.

Song Description

Theme Park Theme is a medium-slow lament over the outsourcing of American jobs to overseas labor markets, as seen through the eyes of one displaced factory worker. The song features haunting organ arrangements in the choruses to illustrate the irony of building amusement parks in a country where uneployment seems to be constantly on the rise.

Lyrics

THEME PARK THEME
Parvin & Patterson
Copyright 2011


Was sweeping up back in high school
And worked my way to the factory floor
Would love to have gone to college
But I loved the paycheck even more
Then the factory gates were welded closed
And I could find no open door

Chorus:
Well they finally razed the factory
And built themselves a new theme park
They razed that furniture factory
And built themselves an amusement park
I just love to watch the pretty lights
From my seat here in the dark

In line for rides in the summertime
You hear the children's silent cries
As they meet their cartoon heroes
And a little part of that magic dies
At the hands of the giant animals
With phony fur and soulless eyes

(Chorus)

Keep boarding up our industries
And moving them offshore
We'll have tons of places to spend that cash
With no place to earn it anymore
But we'll have ourselves a theme park
With fun and fantasies galore

Well they finally razed the factory
And built themselves a new theme park
They razed that furniture factory
And built themselves an amusement park
I just love to watch the pretty lights
Out of work and in the dark