He then begins singing the song People Without Ideals Have No Sadness, performed by the group New Pants, which took part in The Big Band:
"When you're fighting for ideals,
What you're really fighting for is money. ...
I have no desire to die the lonely death of a failure; and I don't want to live underground forever;
The deception of materialistic pleasure;
Running around like ants under pressure;
Uncultured people have no sadness."
"For me that song's like a time machine," Kong says. "It takes me back to the days when I was confused."
Kong's friends refer to him as "the reciter" because of his propensity to recite lyrics, lines from films and poetry that inspire him.
After the show he can even recite backward, and fluently, New Pants' lyrics. Kong then gives some clues to how extensively those lyrics have overshadowed his life:
"'The girl in the cubicle looks pretty as time goes by' - that's me starting to enjoy office romance with the girl sitting next to me at the time - 'People got no money and got no place to make love' - also me when I had to get my girlfriend to pay the hotel room deposit because my money covered only the room rate, at a hotel close to her home when I was 18."
