Although this track was always destined for the very end of the album, it is also where I began writing. We had been touring with The Korgis at the End of the World, a title that leant itself to the gradual winding down of the full band, but I then began to think about what that could mean for an album. Had we kept the creative process going it may well have been the next Korgis album, but that was not to be.
Adding ‘you and I’ to the title made me think of it differently. The chaos that exists globally is very hard to comprehend as an individual and so the lyric inevitably became about how alienated many ordinary people from their governments and global events. With that in mind, the opening line of the chorus was the first lyric to arrive. ‘At the end of the world, you and I, can’t seem to make a difference whatever we try'. No matter how much we try to preach love (and The Korgis have done A LOT of that!) violence erupts in the end. The politics of division, the politics of race, the politics of religion.
For the middle 8 of this song, I put in lines from a second song I had ideas for. It seemed like it could be a good idea if this full song came earlier in the album, making this middle 8 a reprise. Just as I often jigsaw lyric ideas together, I also tend to jigsaw whole albums together. It is no secret that I was responsible for the artistic direction of The Korgis since in formation in 2017. The major Korgis albums ‘Kartoon World’ and UN-United Nations were built in this way, where reprises and themes recurred throughout… hopefully making them into more of a concept in the process.
So here we are already at the end of the album when barely any of the rest of it has been written. What an adventure!
Let's look a bit more closely at the lyrics.

At the End of the World (Steele)
The Joker's on the phone                 yes it is a reference to Batman!… The Joker being the most unhinged villain            
Says Coco the clown has got the throne the references to A.I. began with Kartoon Wold and the song Space 
And the king is just a 3D A.I. clone  Also 'The genie back into the bottle' from UN-United Nations opener Mud Huts
Yes he's an overweight success      obvious play on ‘overnight success'  
It's on our feeds and in the press   we now believe Facebook feeds as much as we do news - how did that happen?!
Do what he says                                perhaps real news channels just got less believable…
you know it's in your best interest  

Meanwhile                                          This whole bridge is a reference to Israel and it's hold on Western powers
The Devil's child                                 Israel sees itself as Gods Children
Beckons you, to come on in             The current leaders seem more like the offspring of the Devil to me!
And welcomes you with a grin

At the end of the world, you and I   The man in the street seems powerless at the moment 
Can't seem to make a difference, whatever we try   to make any difference to global affairs
between the fire, and the abyss
Have we no better choice than this?  There now seems no political party that is echoing the voice of the people
At the end of the world, you and I
We set the course, based on a lie       We have been fed many lies. Weapons of mass destruction
Though we had chosen the strength The war on Iran. Gaza
of a kiss                                                    In the 60's we all wanted peace and it seemed to be happening
All we have left is the fist                      Little by little that feeling got eroded away and has now been replace by
At the end of the world                         ‘Me first’ philosophy and rampant capitalism
At the end of the world

It's getting harder now to breath        We continue down a path of every increasing toxins and plastics,
But in Donald Duck we do believe      but for some reason the same people still think it is great.
We're watching all the shows now      I would like to say we are more sensible in the UK but…
on constant repeat 
Though the world's still spinning round  The first real sign of catastrophe will be when the trash TV stops…
The shopping channels down               then the man in the street will know we are REALLY in trouble!
They say the war is won
but they're still killing                             Ceasefires all over the conflict zones and all broken daily

Cut to                                                        As in the Korgis song ‘Space’ 
The larger view                                       looking at the planet from the outside the signs of decay are much more evident.
One by one, the lights go dim              Perhaps we won't notice until the lights start to go out…
Have we time for one more hymn?     Is it too late to get religeous?!

CHORUS

Time is a freight train                            The march of time like the march of ‘progress’ 
Time is not elastic                                  is not something we can stop
Unless you exist                                     We can't stop A.I.
In a world of mathematics                   We can't stop buying bigger TV's…
Time is your master                               A second car…
He's pulling the strings                          A third car…
He'll show the worth of material things 

Time is the figure                                   The dinosaurs lived for 260 million years.
Who is holding the scythe   
Time is the broker                                 Homo Sapiens have been around for 300,000 years… 
At the end of your life                          
Time is a cheat                                      and already the cracks are showing.
Time is not your friend
As every living being finds                  But every living thing and every species
out in the end                                       will eventually die out.

SOLO
CHORUS