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Breaking Down the Barriers that Break Down Your Music

by Billy and the Lost Boys

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1.
It means nothing to you But it meant everything to me Why are we building walls around our cemeteries When we've already died But not like we'd planned What are you left with after giving all you can? And we'll battle our graves into the ground And we'll curse our mortality right across this bloody town And we'll bury our bodies in idle dreams of sleep And we'll crumble at the mercy of the virtues that we keep And it doesn't even matter what came first When everyone's the chorus and you're just the verse And nobody's got any time to stop and read between the lines And it doesn't even matter what came first When everyone's the chorus and you're just the verse And nobody's got any time to stop and read between the lines It means nothing to you But it meant everything to me Why are we building walls around our cemeteries When we've already died But not like we'd planned What are you left with after giving all you can? And we'll battle our graves into the ground And we'll curse our mortality right across this bloody town And we'll bury our bodies in idle dreams of sleep And we'll crumble at the mercy of the virtues that we keep And it doesn't even matter what came first When everyone's the chorus and you're just the verse And nobody's got any time to stop and read between the lines I had so much to say But I didn't say a thing I had so much to say But I didnt say a thing I had so much to say But I didnt say a thing I had so much to say But I didnt say a thing And it doesn't even matter what came first When everyone's the chorus and you're just the verse And nobody's got any time to stop and read between the lines
2.
When even honesty seems so cliché Takes one brave set of lungs To scream out what you understate And they'll never get it but that's alright 'Cause when my amp's turned up This is all I need to stay alive At least you've got tomorrow Better yet you've got today At least you've got tomorrow Better yet you've got today So save your troubles for another day When we can take them out and wash them away Can't do it now, now's not the time The stage is empty and the day's not waiting for you to be fine At least you've got tomorrow Better yet you've got today At least you've got tomorrow Better yet you've got today
3.
Crying out apartheid on the south side Raising up their weapons to the sky because the past lied Picking up the anger of so many generations Fighting for a nation that'll stick 'em in the station Your good intentions Weren't good enough Your good intentions Weren't good enough With no one to run to, she's a woman in distress Getting judged at the doctor's office 'cause a stranger got her in a mess And before she can even leave their stares behind her One decision, one incision kills the life inside her Your good intentions Weren't good enough Your good intentions Weren't good enough Could it be that everyone of us is right In the right person's eyes You'll find them if you try Could it be there's two sides to this coin Well let's just hope the one you join Is the one where everybody's going Or maybe you'll be on the other side Just fighting for your life To do what you think is right Well let's just hope the side you join Is the one where everybody's going The one where everybody's going Well your good intentions aren't good enough Your good intentions aren't good enough Your good intentions aren't good enough Your good intentions...
4.
No shoes, no shirt If I give you my last dollar is that going to make it worse And if you need a change is spare change what you need? And why is everybody so hungry on this single street? I didn't catch her trip I didn't catch her name I always see her on that strip In the middle of the day Trying to turn a trick Just trying to make her way It's not a matter of what you give But more a matter of what you take Oh the things I see Day to day Down on Hastings & Main Oh the things I see Day to day On Hastings & Main No shoes, no shirt If I give you my last dollar is that going to make it worse And if you need a change is spare change what you need? And why is everybody so hungry on this single street? I didn't catch her trip I didn't catch her name I always see her on that strip In the middle of the day Trying to turn a trick Just trying to make her way It's not a matter of what you give But more a matter of what you take Oh the things I see Day to day Down on Hastings & Main Oh the things I see Day to day On Hastings & Main On Hastings & Main
5.
There's someone in this room With a manifesto on their mind And they've got nothing to prove And they prove it all the time So if you've got nothing to prove If you had nothing to prove Well if you've got nothing to prove What are you gonna do? Unleashed like the blood on the battle ground This is the sound that the lost children have found It's the only priceless thing they own One posession for a generation That's got nothing to call their own This is the anthem of our underground (Who cares they don't and neither should we) Don't care who's listening or what you've found (So save the drama for the TV movie) Locked in the soundtrack of our lives (Who cares you don't and neither should we) This is the one way we'll survive (So save your drama for the TV movie) And this is how we'll die It took so long just to get wrong And it took so long just to move on It took so long just to get it wrong It took so long It took so long just to get wrong And it took so long just to move on It took so long just to get it wrong It took so long... This is the anthem of our underground (Who cares they don't and neither should we) Don't care who's listening or what you've found (So save the drama for the TV movie) Locked in the soundtrack of our lives (Who cares you don't and neither should we) This is the one way we'll survive (So save your drama for the TV movie) And this is how we'll die So what have you got to prove? This is the anthem of our underground (Who cares they don't and neither should we) Don't care who's listening or what you've found (So save the drama for the TV movie) Locked in the soundtrack of our lives (Who cares you don't and neither should we) This is the one way we'll survive (So save your drama for the TV movie) And this is how we'll die
6.
To me it's not about the money or the copies bought and sold It's about what I thought would happen Cause that's what I was told We used to stay up all night Just trying to figure out this crazy world But now I'm up all night Just trying to figure out What went wrong I took the only thing I had into the record store And now it ain't mine They're selling it for more than it's worth I see them do it all the time It's not so much the way they present it I never thought I would regret it I bet they thought I would forget it But now the record's finally out and nobody can get it And the music doesn't matter anymore Now that it's packaged and sealed and lining the walls of this war Why can't the melodies burn into silicone circles The ink on this insert explain what it's worth Or go back to when I would just do it myself When I had enough and did not need your help Rather than let you play the middle man With sour explanations and purchasing plans And we'll give twice as much and be left with much less In our verbal contact this was not addressed
7.
Whodini 02:44
What's in a nickname It's not the name your mother gave you But it just might save you From not knowing how to behave You just want to get away Don't know where you're going to stay But it doesn't matter anyway 'Cause everything is gonna be okay If you just keep running And it won't catch up if you don't look back It won't catch up if you don't look back It never made much sense When you got so good at leaving Even when you're screaming out That you couldn't think of a reason Why you always had to go But it felt like home out on the road Even when you didn't know Why you left or where to go And i guess you've always known That you'd be on your own When it comes to where you're going And you never knew quite how To sit down and stick around But it doesn't matter now Maybe it's just me But it seemed so boring Without empty clubs at 2am Promoters with the same old story
8.
All your father's daughters couldn't tear your hate from you The thought of hope is dimming and you just don't like the view Of death on the horizon when the martyr takes his cue The candle burns away the scars but bears new gifts of pain for you And if self contempt can't rid the bodies riddled with despair Of any instigation of truth in all the shallow burns you wear And I could take the name that plagues you with this endless shame Would the memory of your cursed birthright still remain? I'm Not Giving Up Today They Can't Take That From You And I don't know what you've done or what you've been through And I don't know what they've done or what they've said to you And I don't where you're from or what they think of you Well all I know is I'm not giving up on you All the ocean's waters couldn't drown the hate in you Forgiving is like quicksand when you've done all you can do To keep yourself above it, to hold on to what's true To get through this for one more day 'cause what's giving up done for you?
9.
Wake Up 02:04
She wakes up To the cold lashing at her bones She packs up So the police will leave her alone She looks down For the change that's been dropped on the ground She cheers up One small smile for every dime she's found And you tell me your life is so hard You've overcharged your credit card You tell me you can't take this stress Stock market's in a mess You wake up To the comfort of your heated home You take up All the resources you think you own Off to work To exploit your workers aren't you nice You walk by A dozen starving kids and don't think twice And you tell me your life is so hard You've overcharged your credit card You tell me you can't take this stress Stock market's in a mess She walks on Scouting out for food along the way She's aware That this life could kill her any day She remains Another starving child without a voice She goes on Living this as if she had a choice And you tell me your life is so hard You've overcharged your credit card You tell me you can't take this stress Stock market's in a mess
10.
You were like a window in the rain Clarity, always so restrained But I always knew there was something there And even though it never lasts I'm still painting pictures on the glass for you Just in case the message might get through From the fog's left over residue Reflecting sunlight in mid-June And though I'm not one to quit I know when to walk away So what highway do I take To watch the miles fade away? You were like a tired metaphor No less true than before And it wasn't that anything had changed But it seems the easier it gets to say The faster all it's meaning goes away And what a part perception plays When you trade in all your rainy days For one tsunami wave You were a long coversation on a short winter day You were like a run-on sentence when there's nothing left to say You were something I had lost that wasn't in the lost and found You were like a foreign film without the subtitles or sound And though I'm not one to quit I know when to walk away So what highway do I take To watch the miles fall away?
11.
We build empires of our downfalls And monuments of our flaws And we tell ourselves it's just a means to an end But where's the end to this means And when can we trade in our day jobs and move on to our dreams And I'd stay up all night And I'd stay up all night And I'd stay up all night Just to find something worth staying up all night for Just to find something worth staying up all night for We build mountains of our madness And factions of our passions And even entropy will see them fall apart sometimes ‘Cause it takes more to make something real Than obscurity in the things you steal And I'll spend my whole life looking for those lines So now that life's become a series of ink blots on receipt backs And the censors in me delete months at a time And the consequence of honesty Resulting in obscurity Looks better than an end result Built of false intent and lies And I'd stay up all night And I'd stay up all night And I'd stay up all night Just to find something worth staying up all night for Just to find something worth staying up all night for
12.
You didn't leave much But nails in the wall Where pictures of better days Always used to fall Nothing ever changes And nothing ever will It comes down to one more night out on the windowsill When your wars inside how do you win? When the days go by like they always did And nobody noticed that you've changed And you keep showing up but it's just not the same When you're living your life Eight hours at a time It isn't very hard to leave What you left behind It started so young And it ran so deep And it all comes back When you land on your feet You stay up all night and it's all you can do When dreams just remind what they took from you And you won't change a thing by not letting go At least that's what they say but you don't want to know And everyone told you you'd be all right And everyone told you you would forget But in the back of your mind it didn't sound right And it hasn't happened yet This is your war But what are you fighting for? And do you have the courage To make soldiers of your words? I'd shut my mouth for centuries But time speaks volumes And I'd give my whole life Just to see you smile one last time Your time was showing up in floods And I'd drown to follow But no one listens like an empty page And that's just fine But why does it take a lifetime just to want to be a child? To watch the petals of perception fall away like railroad miles Out an open window In an open mind Like worlds we've lost to worlds we'll never find When we were young it all seemed forever Now that we're older the time just passes us by Remember the days of those endless summers Now that you're gone it all means nothing But nine weekends and five paychecks Why keep speaking when no one's listening Why keep screaming when there's no meaning Why keep sleeping when no one's dreaming Why keep breathing when we're all leaving?
13.
He slams the door and drops his keys and it almost brings him to his knees All he knows is that he's got to go The crows start sounding murderous as he thinks: "It couldn't get much worse..." And he starts his car like someone starts a war Those suburban streets once seemed so clear Now his face is soaked with tears And he's got to get back to that open road Sometimes that girl, she drove him mad But she was the best thing he ever had Now she's driving mad the boy next door And he thinks of all the thing he has changed Just to share the same last name And then he thinks "What the hell was it all for..." As far as he can tell, the highway's never lied So he gets into his car And drives all night He gets into his car And drives all night She takes a seat and holds her head in both her hands as the end seems to stop he little world from spinning It's so quiet she can hear the sound of all those wasted years echoing throughout the bedroom walls And the memories start flooding back And she knows that there's no turning back You don't play with these things if you plan on winning And she wants to follow him outside But nothing she could do could ever make it right Unless she could go back to the beginning In real life it takes more than three left turns to make a right So she gets into her car and drives all night She gets into her car And drives all night Pretend you've got somewhere to go Or that things will change by the time you're home Just get into your car Get into your car Get into your car And drive all night
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released January 1, 2004

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Billy and the Lost Boys Vancouver, British Columbia

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