AmGC
[Verse 1]
CE
The animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness.
AmFG
baby cries hard in an apartment complex,
CE
As I pass in a car buried under the influence.
AmF
The city's driving me out of my mind.
CE
I 've seen a child is caught in the sad trap of gravity.
AmFG
He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree,
CE
And lands in the grass and weeps for his dignity.
AmF
Next time he will not aim so high.
AmGC
Yeah, next time, neither will I.
[Verse 2]
CE
A mother takes loans out, sends her kids off to colleges.
AmFG
Her family is reduced to names on a shopping list.
CE
Meanwhile, a coroner kneels, beneath a great, wooden crucifix.
AmF
He know that there are worse things than being alone.
CE
So, I've learned to retreat at the first sign of danger.
AmFG
I mean, why wait around, if it's just to surrender?
CE
Ambition, I've found, can only lead to failure.
AmF
I do not read the reviews.
AmGC
No, I am not singing for you.
[Interlude]
C E Am F G x4
AmGC
[Verse 3]
CE
I stood dropping a coin into the pit of a well.
AmFG
And I would throw my whole billfold if I thought it would help.
CE
With all these wishes I make, I should buy something real,
AmF
At least a telephone call home.
CE
Well, my teachers, they built the retaining wall memory,
AmFG
All those multiple choices I answered so quickly.
CE
And I got my grades back and forgot just as easily,
AmF
But as least I got an 'A'.
AmGC
So I don't have them to blame.
[Verse 4]
CE
I should stop pointing fingers; reserve my judgment
AmFG
Of all those public action figures, the cowboy president.
CE
So loud behind the bullhorn, so proud they can't admit
AmF
When they've made a mistake.
CE
While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen,
AmFG
He knows he don't have to say it, so it don't bother him.
CE
"Honesty" "Accuracy" are really just "Popular Opinion."
AmF
And the approval rating's high.
AmGC
And so someone's gonna die.
[Verse 5]
CE
Well, ABC NBC CBS: Bullshit.
AmFG
They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split.
CE
And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment.
AmF
We are still the pawns in their game.
CE
As they take an eye for an eye until no one can see,
AmFG
And we must stumble blindly forward, repeating history.
CE
Well, I guess that we all fit into your slogan on the fast food marquee:
AmF
Red blooded, White skinned oh and the Blues.
AmGC
Oh, and the Blues? I got the Blues! That's me! That's me!
[Interlude]
C E Am F G x4
AmGC
[Verse 6]
CE
Well, I awoke in relief. My sheets and tubes were all tangled.
AmFG
Weak from whiskey and pills,in a Chicago hospital.
CE
My father was there, in a chair by the window,
AmF
staring so far away.
CE
I tried talking, just whispered, "...so sorry...so selfish..."
AmFG
He stopped me and said, "Child I love you regardless
CE
And there is nothing you could do that would ever change this.
AmF
I'm not angry. It happens.
AmGC
But you just can't do it again.
[Verse 7]
CE
So now I try to keep up, I have been exchanging my currency.
AmFG
While a million objects pass through my periphery.
CE
So now I am rubbing my eyes because they are starting to bother me.
AmF
I've been staring too long at the screen.
CE
But where was it when I first heard that sweet sound of humility?
AmFG
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody.
CE
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery;
AmF
To love and be loved.
AmGC
Let's just hope that is enough.
[Outro]
C Em Am F G x4
AmGC