(Mike)
|
Up until just recently
|
Gambling was thought to be blasphemy
|
|
(Jian, as Cedric)
|
Like Wilson Phillips, evil stuff
|
|
(Mike)
|
But Canada is changing fast
|
Loosening it up at last legally
|
|
(Jian)
|
The new narcotic, take a puff.
|
|
(All)
|
Casinos open to raise funds for social needs
|
|
(Jian)
|
Full of roulette wheels,
|
Black jack and video slot machines.
|
|
(All)
|
Now guys like Cedric perform benevolent deeds.
|
|
(Jian)
|
I've been saving up my welfare
|
Just to throw the dice on the velvet greens.
|
|
(Mike)
|
Money made by dealing folks
|
Goes to helping healing folks 'cross the land
|
|
(Jian)
|
I stand and proudly gush.
|
|
(Mike)
|
Casinos are a ministry handled governmentally
|
Show your hand.
|
|
(Jian)
|
I almost had a royal flush.
|
|
(All)
|
Since Cedric spent his last dime on 15 to 2.
|
|
(Jian)
|
I put my chips on 32 red it went to black instead.
|
|
(All)
|
Guys like Cedric are pulling Medicaire through.
|
|
(Jian)
|
Now they're asking me to leave,
|
And I'm poor and I'm peeved so I just might heave.
|
|
(Mike)
|
So he mortgaged the house and he traded the kids
|
And he studied the odds and he practiced the bids.
|
The he ran to province next door to his
|
Where casinos were a brand new flourishing biz.
|
(All)
|
His new found luck at blackjack brought him such wealth
|
They realized he'd make a perfect Minister of Health.
|
|
(Mike)
|
Now he's wearing all the hats
|
Hanging out with bureaucrats at bookie joints.
|
(Jian)
|
He's a public money sponge.
|
|
(Mike)
|
Watch him place another bet
|
We go deeper into debt losing points
|
(Jian)
|
And credit ratings plunge
|
|
(Jian)
|
We've made a virtue of that which used to be vice:
|
(All)
|
Lower tax on corporations, gambling donations pay the bills.
|
(Jian)
|
Now gambling addicts are civil servants with dice:
|
(All)
|
Selling health to the hopeless, pocketing the profits, curing our ills.
|
|
(All)
|
Our social service is getting nervous
|
As Cedric hands it to one-armed bandits.
|
It's hell for purists but swell for tourists so yeah!
|
|
|
From the Liner:
|
1992- Originally written as a musical discussion of the issues around the
|
legalization of gambling in Canada, this piece was commissioned and performed in
|
'92
|
for CBC's national television newsmagazine The Journal. Since then,
|
Cedric
|
F. has been spotted with many celebrities (including T.V.'s Bob Denver) at
|
various
|
'nouveau' casinos.
|
|
-----------------
|
The Ballad of Cedric Fruvous
|
| Moxy Fruvous |
