Dead Kennedys
Lyric guide

The Great Wall

Read The Great Wall lyrics by Dead Kennedys on LyroVerse, with linked artist context and related song paths.

Dead Kennedys visibility1 visits Video on page
person Curated by Ethan Walker LyroVerse team
Reference snapshot

The page facts to cite before the commentary

Use this page for the lyric text, linked artist context, and any LyroVerse editor's note attached to the song. Listener comments remain user-generated and should not be treated as the primary source.

Page type: lyric reference Artist: Dead Kennedys Canonical path: /dead-kennedys/the-great-wall Related lyric paths: 6 Video embedded: yes
Lyrics

The Great Wall

The lyric stays readable and compact here; the note and related paths sit nearby so you do not lose the song while looking for context.

Great Wall of China

It's so big it's seen from outer space

Put there to keep starving neighbors

Locked outside the gates

What's changed today?

Empires hoard more than they need

And peasants threaten our comfort

We'll build a Great Wall around our power

Build a Great Wall around our power

Bankrupt L.A.'s streetcar line

So people pay more to drive

Plant strategic freeways

To divide neighborhoods by color lines

We'd rather pay for riot squads

Than pump your ghetto back to life

We let your schools decay on purpose

To build a Great Wall around our power

Another Great Wall around our power

Warlords in grey suits

Take a different route to work each day

Second-hand green berets

Form the companies' private armies.

We'll take all your gold

But won't teach reading or feed your poor

The League of Gentleman

Would rather feed guns to puppet dictators

There's too many people in your world

And refugees are expensive

When they trickled down onto our soil

We hunt them and arrest them

Classify them insane

And put them back on the next plane

To the waiting arms

Of the same death squads they fled

We've built a Great Wall around our power

Economic Great Wall around our power

Worldwide Great Wall around our power

Give us your poor,

Your tired and your weak

We'll send 'em right back

To their certain death

Quick answers

What this page can answer fast

Who performs "The Great Wall"?

Dead Kennedys performs "The Great Wall", and this lyric page sits inside the Dead Kennedys catalog on LyroVerse.

Are there related songs to explore after "The Great Wall"?

Yes. The related section below points to Pull My Strings and The Man With The Dogs with a short reason for opening each page next.

Where can I find more songs by Dead Kennedys?

Use the artist link near the top of the page or the related paths section below to keep moving through Dead Kennedys's lyric pages.

Song Room

Interpretations, questions, and corrections for this song

Interpretations, questions, memories, and correction notes live together here. The room stays noindex while the best insights are reviewed.

Open Song Room
0 followers Selected insights only surface after moderation
Listener comments

What people are saying

0 comments
Add a short interpretation or memory

A strong comment here is specific: the phrase you keep hearing, the mood you come back for, or the reason this song stays in rotation.

Sign in to post the first listener note. Reporting stays open to everyone.

No listener comments on The Great Wall yet.