All around you slow decay Wanna feel the sun of a new day Forget all the chances lost Shedding innocence like falling dust All the things you learned too young The songs you knew but never sung Waited a long time and wasted more Forgotten what you waited for Excuse me ma'am for being so rude Feels like 100 years of solitude My mind is numb but my mouth's okay And you can listen or walk away No solutions built to last Just petty scores to settle fast The N.M.E. was nothing to you And the maker, well the maker of who This walkman generation In search of sweet sedation While forests choke under a lever sky And the Exxon birds that will never fly We tried, we cried, we fell, we lied This life's like a white knucke ride Crack babies born too young And L.A. kids who dance to the gun So forget this so called dirt of mine It's just the dust and diesel of passing time It's all around you - a tragedy, look So forget the cover and read the book