Why Can’t People Do — A diverse group of adults turns hesitation into cooperation while completing a community bridge across a brilliant Merced canal

The songbook

Why Can’t People Do

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr. Listen to the recorded versions and follow the lyric below.

Original Doug Heyes lyrics · AI-generated music & vocals

Broken promises lead the speaker to challenge the gap between someone's claimed integrity and their actual behavior. Anger at deception becomes a direct refrain about keeping one's word and caring about one's work. The final farewell leaves a possible return open, but only if the promise can become something lived.

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Recorded versions

3 recordings. Different voices and arrangements bring another side of the song into the light.

Lyrics

Why Can’t People Do

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr

Save Lyrics as Text
Why can’t people do
What they say they’re gonna do
Why do they make promises
And never see them through
Always working something somewhere
Way outside the lines Living in the shadows
In extraordinary times

That might sound like a blessing
But it's a Chinese curse
Time to start addressing
That it’s bad and getting worse
What we call integrity
It all comes down to you and me
Otherwise we come to be
A travesty, a fantasy

That may be enough for you
It ain't enough for me
What you are is what You see
Divine aristocracy
Fronting your nobility
You claim to be royalty
I just don’t buy all your lies
I can read them in your eyes
Seven deadly alibis
When you speak an Angel cries

CHORUS:
Do what you say
And Love what you do
Ask lots of question
Let answers come through
Keep your eyes open
Let your light shine through
Do what you say
And Love what you do

You’ll change everything
In the blink of an eye
Let your heart sing
As you rise in the sky
You’ll never get there
If you still have to lie
And you may not care
When I say goodbye

That might be a lot
Of what I have to say
I never imagined
I’d send you away
Maybe Come back
On another new day
Singing this song
When you come out to play

CHORUS:
Do what you say
And Love what you do
Ask lots of question
Let answers come through
Keep your eyes open
Let your light shine through
Do what you say
And Love what you do
*******

© Douglas Heyes Jr. All rights reserved.