Words and music copyright 1998 by Steve Brooks

Sometimes it gets so hard to be a strongman,
To be the biggest bully on the block.
The parents hide their children.
They’re afraid he’s gonna kill them.
They say the life is lonely at the top.
The tortures he inflicts upon his people
Are nothing to the torture in his soul.
In the midst of the repression,
It cries out for self-expression.
All he really wants to do is rock’n’roll.

CHORUS
So, move over Elvis.
Here comes the King.
His song will really grab a hold a ya.
He writes the songs that make the Third World sting.
He’s singing,
Singing to Cambodia.

The DJs love to play him on the radio.
He’s rising to the top of every chart.
While he’s counting up his coups,
His records all debut
Number 15 with a bullet to the heart.
He wants to be like Mao and Michael Jackson,
And you can see he’s destined to go far.
The only thing that’s greater
Than being a great dictator
Is to make yourself a famous music star.

CHORUS

Ten million Cambodians can’t be wrong
He’s killing them softly with his song.
So it’s Coup Sera Sera, and Flog Me Tender,
And don’t go stepping on his Blue Suede Shoes.
While elections he is rigging,
You still can catch him gigging
With his greatest hit, “La Vie en Khmer Rouge.”

CHORUS

He writes the songs that make the young girls cry.
He writes the songs, he writes the songs.