Automatic For The People lyrics

Smack, crack, bushwhacked.
Tie another one to the racks, baby.

Hey kids, rock and roll.
Nobody tells you where to go, baby.

What if I ride What if you walk
What if you rock around the clock
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
What if you did What if you walk
What if you tried to get off, baby

Hey, kids, where are you
Nobody tells you what to do, baby.

Hey kids, shake a leg.

I will try not to breathe.
I can hold my head still with my hands at my knees.
These eyes are the eyes of the old, shiver and fold.

I will try not to breathe.
This decision is mine. I have lived a full life
and these are the eyes that I want you to remember. Oh.

I need something to fly over my grave again.
I need something to breathe.

I will try not to burden you.

This here is the place I will be staying.
There isn't a number. You can call the pay phone.
Let it ring a long, long, long, long time.
If I don't pick up, hang up, call back, let it ring some more.
If I don't pick up, pick up... The sidewinder sleeps, sleeps, sleeps in a coil

Call me when you try to wake her up. Call me when you try to wake her.

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
when you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
if you feel like letting go, (hold on)

[Instrumental]

Readying to bury your father and your mother,
what did you think when you lost another
I used to wonder why did you bother,
distanced from one, blind to the other

Listen here my sister and my brother
what would you care if you lost the other
I always wonder why did we bother,
distanced from one, deaf to the other.

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows

Monty this seems strange to me.
The movies had that movie thing,
but nonsense has a welcome ring
and heroes don't come easy.

Now, nonsense isn't new to me.
I know my head, I know my feet,
but mischief knocked me in the knees.
Said, Just let go. Just let go.

I saw the ocean meet the man.
I saw you buried in the sand.
A friend was there to hold your hand,
Said, Walk on by.

These bastards stole their power from the victims of the Us v. Them years,
wrecking all things virtuous and true.
The undermining social democratic downhill slide into abysmal
lost lamb off the precipice into the trickle down runoff pool.
They hypnotised the summer, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Marched into the capital brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,

Keys cut, three for the price of one.
Nothing's free but guaranteed for a lifetime's use.
I've changed the locks
and you can't have one.
You, you know the other two.

The brakes have worn so thin that you could hear,
I hear them screeching through the door from our driveway.
Hey love, look into your glovebox heart.
What is there for me inside This love is tired.

Mott the Hoople and the game of Life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Monopoly, Twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
See you heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, it's so much clearer.
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge.
The moon is low tonight.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
I'm not sure all these people understand.
It's not like years ago,

Hey now, little speedyhead,
the read on the speedmeter says
you have to go to task in the city
where people drown and people serve.
Don't be shy. Your just deserve
is only just light years to go.

Me, my thoughts are flower strewn
ocean storm, bayberry moon.
I have got to leave to find my way.
Watch the road and memorize
this life that pass before my eyes.
Nothing is going my way.