[1]
MAH OLD MAN
taught me about a life worth livin'!
Said "If you get just one person to mourn you when your gone..."
I WONDER WHAT
he was thinkin'
when his church called on me and I left mah seat empty
GUESS I TAUGHT
him a thing a bout dyin'!
If your gunna start tryin'
don't wait 'til the day you GET OUTTA HERE

[2]
NEVER MEANT TO
be a burden
His "foxy little thang" was gone 'fore I was one
I NEVER ASKED
to be forgiven
To say "I'm sorry"'d be a lie, we just don't see eye to eye
SO I STAND
up and take mah lickin's
hold the line
and bide mah time for the day I GET OUTTA HERE

[3]
THEY SAY these streets are mean, but they're kind to boys like me:
Young and light-skinned and never in 'Nam
WE'D FLASH a smile to the pretty girls for a fin in the jar
and trade stock tips with humour-less snappy-dressed marks
ALL THE OLD folks scoffed that we weren't in class, but we had Scooter and Barclay and skinheads from Mass. CHALKIN' UP THE BOARD:
Long ball and short haul
BUT IN THE back of mah head was stickin': mah old man taught me 'bout a life worth livin'
YOU SPIT WHERE I make a killin'!
So I SAVE up mah pay
and make for a play toward the day I GET OUTTA HERE

[4]
IT'S NOT EASY to find, but so easy to lose-
that's how it is defined
YOU PICKED ME up back on mah feet -
then so quick to mah knees, kiss you hips if you please
FILLED the cupboards with mah fast hand
YOUR SECRET lover and your best friend
Felt so tender,
won't let end
but love don't make dem steel handcuffs bend

I guess that we both got greedy!
For some time,
I'll cry and I'll pine 'til the day I GET OUTTA HERE

[5 (Alternate verse)]

to find somethin', it can be so thrillin'; a love that changes what you think of the ocean and God

but is it worth a killin'?
if it's not yours when you're gone is it ever really your own?

if you think so man, you must be jokin'!
bide mah time, find out what's mine on the day I get out of here!

[6]
I AM A PATIENT MAN and I'm willing to grow,
but the things you hear here ain't things you wanna know
HYPE SOME GREEN or show you are mean;
so keen to be hard, but ain't nuthin' so hard as this cot and those bars
WOULDN'T BE so bad if we could just play cards,
or smoke some cigarettes in the yard, but
I DON'T CARE when push comes to shove;
so read the charges again, they ain't stickin'.
MAH OLD MAN taught me 'bout a life worth livin'
and that sure as hell ain't in prison!
shorten mah stay, mah dues are all paid
Still! make 'em RUE THE DAY I GET OUTTA HERE

[7]
SO HERE be I, strummin' guitar
Lo! The faces don't change in this rock n' roll bar
I CAME OUT to sing you mah life -- won't you listen?
To a verse about a life worth livin'?
SAVE YOUR MONEY for the bartender, I'll give you this song
Just please, mourn for me when I'm gone

[8]
AND LET ME go!
I ain't long for this place
DON'T TAKE IT personal - it was mah time to waste
I'M GOIN' OUT - all mah dreams have been chased and backed down
to a corner bar where within all the old men talk about a life worth livin'
THOUGH AT TIMES I lived mah life like a villain, hope to see your face
after I've run mah race
AND HOPE THAT His Grace don't send me back to this place
and it'll be the day I GET OUTTA HERE