Titus Andronicus

The first thing you see is the light
Then, you focus on a man in a mask with a knife
As he cuts you away from everything you thought you knew about life
Now you're in your mother's arms, wrinkled and wet
You'll spend the rest of your life trying to hard to forget
That you met the world naked and screaming
And that's how you'll leave it

In Riverside Hospital, on a July morning
With a push and a pull - this is how I found out
I wasn't quite so invulnerable
It put the fear of God in me when I heard my daddy say,
"One mistake is all that it takes."

I ended up at Central School, 1993,
And met a certain kid named Sarim at the library
He said, "they're ain't nothing about this place that's elementary."
I learned to play the guitar in the seventh grade
In order to convince everyone I was a renegade
That's when I learned, in Glen Rock,
Everybody calls a spade a spade
I couldn't fool anyone
I couldn't even fool myself
I was just another book on the shelf, nothing else

A band trip dance
What could be the harm
But a six week vacation from the use of my right arm?
It was just the two hits
And I remember nothing more
Only Alex hitting the switch
and me hitting the floor
We're taking this lying down
The one thing I can stand up for is resting supine on the ground
Mr. McDermott, won't you help me to my feet?
Because the drumline's going wild in the San Francisco streets

The long walk home
An hour and a half
But quickly turns to three or four with stops at every underpass
But by June 22nd
I have done the math
That's a hundred and five liters I'll consume of Dr. Path
Some girls will tell their secrets to anyone
The word "love" gets thrown around a lot near graduation
So please don't whisper sweet nothings in my ear
When the sound of shredding vocal chords is what I want to hear
Because we're going to San Francisco
And I forget to wear some flowers in my hair

She's got a secret surname
That nobody knows
With the most gorgeous hyphen
You wouldn't believe the way it glows
And I'm the only one who gets to see it way up close
So the rest of you can stick it up your nose

Last night, I had the strangest dream that I have ever known
My mother, in a fit of rage, chases me from our home
My mother, the murderer holds me down in the road
She's got the nail clippers at my throat

Now even though things lately may have been real horrorshow
I'm wishing I was back in utero
I'd like to go back to the way that things were before
But apparently, I'm looking at physical therapy
It won't be exactly how it used to be
It ain't hard to see that it's not that way
Not that way anymore
Jesus Christ is suffering upon his cross tonight
I just sit outside waiting for frost to bite
"It's always this way,"
She says on her way out the door
Just wait and see
The rest is yet to reveal itself to me

Throw my guitar down on the floor
No one cares what I've got to say anymore
I didn't come here to be damned with faint praise
I'll write my masterpiece some other day
(Fuck everything, fuck me)

I'm repeating myself again
Innovation, I leave to smarter men
Pretty melodies don't fall out of the air for me
I've got to steal them from somewhere
But it doesn't matter what you do
Or how hard you try
Now there's nothing left for me to do except die
When they cut you up
And tell you that it's not going to hurt
But they are not going to stop until they see you go to sleep in the dirt

There'll be no more cigarettes
No more having sex
No more drinking until you fall on the floor
No more indie rock
Just a ticking clock
You have no time for that anymore
You better watch where you run your mouth
Because you know what they'll say to you

They'll say
Your life is over [repeat until end]

Running around
This run-down, one-horse town
One of these days
They're gonna crucify me
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
It is to be young, dumb, and have lots of money
We will sit upon this grassy knoll
Holding hands and stroking handguns
With pristine souls
And even my own mother will tell you
I am an asshole, but underneath it all
There is an apathetic heart of gold

So who will be saved,
From the least to the greatest men?
Because even Honest Abe
Sold poison milk to schoolchildren

The blood drive came to Glen Rock High
In a white bus with red letters on the side
And a long shiny needle
They brought to suck me dry
Like missionary mosquitoes in the sky
Now you're doing time for stealing candy
From a babe
Because all the kids in Ridgewood have got cell phones these days
And if you wear a mask
They can still read your license plate
And a wireless line
Is a terrible thing to waste
Because the more we think
The less it all makes sense
Tonight we will drink
To our general indifference
Lamb of God
We think nothing of ourselves at all
So, Death, be not proud
Because we don't give a fuck about nothing
And we only want what we are not allowed

The first thing you see is the light
Then, you focus on a man in a mask with a knife
As he cuts you away from everything you thought you knew about life
Now you're in your mother's arms, wrinkled and wet
You'll spend the rest of your life trying to hard to forget
That you met the world naked and screaming
And that's how you'll leave it

In Riverside Hospital, on a July morning
With a push and a pull - this is how I found out
I wasn't quite so invulnerable
It put the fear of God in me when I heard my daddy say,
"One mistake is all that it takes."

I ended up at Central School, 1993,
And met a certain kid named Sarim at the library
He said, "they're ain't nothing about this place that's elementary."
I learned to play the guitar in the seventh grade
In order to convince everyone I was a renegade
That's when I learned, in Glen Rock,
Everybody calls a spade a spade
I couldn't fool anyone
I couldn't even fool myself
I was just another book on the shelf, nothing else

You have got a lot of nerve to behave the way that you do
Making me listen to all of your carrying on
You are not the only one who thinks that life is so cruel
Me, I have got problems of my own

If you talk and nobody's listening
It's almost like being alone
So it's alright, the way you piss and moan
It's alright, the way you piss and moan

Like the time traveler who killed his grandfather
These cycles are bringing me down
We could build a nice life together
If we don't kill each other first

Are you just too fucked up to understand me
Or is it the other way around?
Maybe it's both
And I just don't know which is worse

So you better thank your lucky stars
You don't know half what I know is true
But it's alright if you think that you do
It's alright if you think that you do

Was it the Devil
Or was it the Lord
Who gave you those words
The ones I never heard?

That it's alright to kill and it's alright to steal
If you're willing to hold up your part of the deal
There are plenty of things that are worth dying for
But you'll never know until you open that door

And reasons for living are seldom and few
When you see one, you better stick to it like glue
Yes, it's true
It is true, it's true

If I were there to keep satisfied all of your carnal desires
Then it might be my place to say what is or isn't forbid
So how can I hold it against you if you answer the call of the wild?
No matter how brilliant a woman, you're only a kid
But if you know that nobody is ever going to suffer for you like I did

Then it's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live

It's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live
It's alright, the way that you live

It's alright now