AmEAmGEAmEAmGEAmE
well, i’m afraid that the circles i’ve been drinking myself
AmGE
aren’t big enough for the vowels that i try to fit inside of them.
Am
when i was young, i drank too much,
EAm
and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t feel so goddamn young tonight;
GE
maybe too young to ask what’s on my mind.
FAm
like: if freedom means doing what you want (well),
EAm
don’t you gotta want something?
FAmE
and won’t you tell me that we want something more than just more beer?
and my friends, if that ain’t true, won’t you lie to me tonight?
AmE
well, i’ve been listening to minor threat records all day,
and shit if i do not know every word.
AmGE
i sing along as i tie off.
AmE
and ian screams he’s “out of step” as i throw the cotton into the spoon, draw up into
the syringe.
AmGE
i’ll know just what he means until i hit a vein.
[FAmE]
Am
but after that i won’t have to bother with knowing who i am, for a while at least.
FAm
in a moment the whole world is gonna melt around me,
E
and i’ll swear i don’t miss it as a i lie to you tonight.
CEAmF
because i’m afraid to look the world in the eye.
CEAmF
if nothing’s gonna change, well, then i’d rather die.
CE
and i’m too unemployed to organize a union;
AmF
i’m too intoxicated to tear down a building.
CE
i’m too hopeless to look for a solution;
Am
i’m afraid that if i found one,
FC
i’d be out of excuses for the way i waste away
EAmF
in the gutters that i chose like fashion accessories to go with my dirty clothes.
CEAm
i haven’t bathed in months, but you know it’s not because i’ve been fighting bourgeois morals:
F
i’m just lazy and i’m young.
AmE
i’ve seen the best minds of my generation dying drunk or high from the rooftops to the
parking lots,
AmGE
stomped to death in west philadelphian squats.
AmE
they’ve got me waiting on a day when we can say “fuck the police!” with a little bit of integrity,
AmGE
when it will mean: “i’ve got your back if you’ve got mine!”
[FAmE]
Am
give me a scene where i believe in more than bad hair cuts, guilt, and misery.
FAm
i don’t know where i fit between the vegans and the nihilists.
E
that might be the first thing i’ve said that wasn’t a lie tonight.
CEAmF
because there’s gotta be something more than lying in the front yard, naked, screaming
at the constellations.
CEAmF
i want something more than an apology to say when i look the world in the eye.
CE
i’ll tell you, man, my friend william came to me with a message of hope.
AmF
it went: “fuck you and everything that you think you know.
CEAmF
if you don’t step outside the things that you believe they’re gonna kill you.”
CEAm
he said: “no one’s gonna stop you from dying young, and miserable, and right,
F
but if you want something better, you gotta put that shit aside.”
CEAmF
i thought about how for thousands of years there have been people who told us that
things can’t go on like this:
CE
from jesus chris to the diggers,
Am
from malthus to zerzan,
F
from karl marx to huey newton,
CEAmF
but the shit goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on x 3? (first time
short, second time strum, end on C)
GF
now, i’m not saying that we can’t change the world,
CEAmF
because everybody does at least a little bit of that.
CEAmF
but i won’t shit myself: the way i’m living is a temper tantrum
[CEAm]
F
and i need something else, need something else, need something else to stay alive.
[CEAmF]
(ohohoh.)
[FAmE]
Am
and on the night that i play my last show, i’ll be singing so loud that my heart explodes.
FAmE
and i’ll be singing, and i’ll be singing: we are free!
FAmEAm
oh, but won’t you promise me that we won’t ever forget what the means?
FAmE
i know it’s hard to give a shit sometimes, but promise me we’ll always try.
FAmE
because i don’t wanna hate you, and i don’t wanna hate me,
FAmE
and i don’t wanna have to hate everything anymore.