Pastime Paradise

Album: Songs In The Key Of Life (1976)
Play Video
  • They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a pastime paradise
    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a pastime paradise
    They've been wasting most their time
    Glorifying days long gone behind
    They've been wasting most their days
    In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise

    Tell me, who of them will come to be?
    How many of them are you and me?
    Dissipation
    Of race relations
    Consolation
    Segregation
    Dispensation
    Isolation
    Exploitation
    Mutilation
    Mutation
    Miscreation
    Confirmation to the evils of the world

    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a future paradise
    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a future paradise
    They've been looking in their minds
    For the day that sorrow's lost from time
    They keep telling of the day
    When the savior of love will come to stay

    Tell me, who of them will come to be?
    How many of them are you and me?
    Proclamation
    Of race relations
    Consolation
    Integration
    Verification
    Of revelation
    Acclamation
    World salvation
    Vibration
    Stimulation
    Confirmation to the peace of the world

    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a pastime paradise
    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a pastime paradise
    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a future paradise
    They've been spending most their lives
    Living in a future paradise
    We've been spending too much of our lives
    Living in a pastime paradise
    Let's start living our lives
    Living for the future paradise
    Praise to our lives
    Living for the future paradise
    Shame to anyone's lives
    Living in the pastime paradise Writer/s: Stevie Wonder
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • G. Ben Paxton Ii from Central OhioAmish Paradise. Gangsta's Paradise. Pastime paradise.... But it all goes back to BACH. Music is such a river. Stevie, Coolio, Wierd Al, I salute you all! I enjoyed them all. JSB, You truly ROCK.
  • Dgjfg from St Catharines, OnStevie Wonder's version takes on the same issues being lived (under a different context) 20 years later. Far from glorifying the gangster lifestyle it further explains how slowly progress is made in a country where segregation of all races is still very much in existence in low income neighborhoods in the Detroit, Houston, Miami, LA, etc, etc, etc. areas. Stevie Wonder even performed at the 1995 Billboard awards with Coolio and was a major producer (not just a 'sample approver') of the remix.

    In the rendition at the 1995 Billboard awards, note how Stevie is singing the 'living In a gangsters paradise' version while L.V. is singing the 'living in a pastime paradise' lyrics and in the end they both sing 'aint no gangstas living in paradise..... aint no racists living in paradise'
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Graduation Songs

Graduation SongsFact or Fiction

Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum

Gary Brooker of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")Song Writing

Nick made some of the biggest videos on MTV, including "The Final Countdown," "Heaven" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)."

Dan Reed

Dan ReedSongwriter Interviews

Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.

Julian Lennon

Julian LennonSongwriter Interviews

Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.

Matt Sorum

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."