From Here Till Utopia (song For The Desperate)

Intro: Am E Am G E (2x) Am E well, i’m afraid that the circles i’ve been drinking myself Am G E aren’t big enough for the vowels that i try to fit inside of them. Am when i was young, i drank too much, E Am and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t feel so goddamn young tonight; G E maybe too young to ask what’s on my mind. F Am like: if freedom means doing what you want (well), E Am don’t you gotta want something? F Am E 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? Am E well, i’ve been listening to minor threat records all day, and shit if i do not know every word. Am G E i sing along as i tie off. Am E and ian screams he’s “out of step” as i throw the cotton into the spoon, draw up into the syringe. Am G E i’ll know just what he means until i hit a vein. F Am E Am but after that i won’t have to bother with knowing who i am, for a while at least. F Am 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. C E Am F because i’m afraid to look the world in the eye. C E Am F if nothing’s gonna change, well, then i’d rather die. C E and i’m too unemployed to organize a union; Am F i’m too intoxicated to tear down a building. C E i’m too hopeless to look for a solution; Am i’m afraid that if i found one, F C i’d be out of excuses for the way i waste away E Am F in the gutters that i chose like fashion accessories to go with my dirty clothes. C E Am 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. Am E i’ve seen the best minds of my generation dying drunk or high from the rooftops to the parking lots, Am G E stomped to death in west philadelphian squats. Am E they’ve got me waiting on a day when we can say “fuck the police!” with a little bit of integrity, Am G E when it will mean: “i’ve got your back if you’ve got mine!” F Am E Am give me a scene where i believe in more than bad hair cuts, guilt, and misery. F Am 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. F because there’s gotta be something more than lying in the front yard, naked, screaming at the constellations. C E Am F i want something more than an apology to say when i look the world in the eye. C E i’ll tell you, man, my friend william came to me with a message of hope. Am F it went: “fuck you and everything that you think you know. C E Am F if you don’t step outside the things that you believe they’re gonna kill you.” C E Am 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.” C E Am F i thought about how for thousands of years there have been people who told us that things can’t go on like this: C E from jesus chris to the diggers, Am from malthus to zerzan, F from karl marx to huey newton, C E Am F but the shit goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on x 3? G F now, i’m not saying that we can’t change the world, C E Am F because everybody does at least a little bit of that. C E Am F but i won’t shit myself: the way i’m living is a temper tantrum F and i need something else, need something else, need something else to stay alive. C E Am F (ohohoh.) F Am E Am and on the night that i play my last show, i’ll be singing so loud that my heart explodes. F Am E and i’ll be singing, and i’ll be singing: we are free! F Am E Am oh, but won’t you promise me that we won’t ever forget what the means? F Am E i know it’s hard to give a shit sometimes, but promise me we’ll always try. F Am E because i don’t wanna hate you, and i don’t wanna hate me, F Am E and i don’t wanna have to hate everything anymore.