Post office clerks put up signs saying position closed

And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats

Janitors padlock the gates

For security guards to patrol

And bachelors phone up their friends for a drink

While the married ones turn on a chat show



And they'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow



Gentlemen time please, you know we can't serve anymore

Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there's nothing to go

And by five o'clock everything's dead

And every third car is a cab

And ignorant people sleep in their beds

Like the doped white mice in the college lab



Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all

The needle returns to the start of the song

And we all sing along like before



And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow



Telephone exchanges click while there's nobody there

The Martians could land in the carpark and no one would care

Close-circuit cameras shoot the same video every day

And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed

Just survive constant action replay



Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all

The needle returns to the start of the song

And we all sing along like before



And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow



Bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needs

While angry from Manchester writes to complain about

All the repeats on T.V.

And computer terminals report some gains

On the values of copper and tin

While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs

For the price of a hospital wing



Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all

The needle returns to the start of the song

And we all sing along like before

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all

They'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock

And we'll all go along like before



And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow