Throw the world off your shoulders tonight, Mr. Smith Throw the world off your shoulders tonight, Mr. Smith He's been looking now For a long time It seems the more he looks The less he wants to see He turned to the west For a long time He turned to the east Then he turned to the west again CHORUS If there's a heaven above In the meantime If there's a heaven above Let it be near If there's a heaven above In the meantime Then let it be near Let it be near to me We've been talking now For a long time It seems the more we speak The less we seem to say If there's a hell below In the meantime Then let us shut up Unless we want to pray He saw everything a little too clearly So close that the bones would show And to see everything so clearly Isn't always the best thing, you know CHORUS Throw the world off your shoulders tonight, Mr. Smith Throw the world off your shoulders tonight, Mr. Smith