The Decline - Live at Red Rocks

Hey, is that a bassoon?
We got a fucking bassoon
Did Bad Religion have a fucking bassoon?
I'm not ready, let's do this

Let's go!

Where are all the stupid people from?
And how'd they get to be so dumb?
Bred on purple mountain range
Feed amber waves of grains
To lesser human beings, zero feelings

Hey, blame it on

Human nature, man's destiny
Blame it on the greediocracy
The fear of God, the fear of death
The fear of truth

Add the bill of rights, subtract the wrongs (there's no answers)
Memorize and sing star-spangled songs
(When the questions) aren't ever asked
Is anybody learning from the past?
We're living in united stagnation

Father, what have I done?
I took that 22, a gift from me to you
To bed with me each night
Kept it clean, polished it well
Cherished every cartridge, every shell

Down by the creek, under brush, under pond
There's a carcass of my second kill
Down by the park, under stone, under pine
There's a carcass of my brother William

Brother, where have you gone to?
I swear, I never thought I could
I see so many times, they told me to shoot straight
Don't pull the trigger, squeeze
That will insure a kill, a kill is what they want
A kill is what you need

The Christians love their guns
The church and NRA
Pray for their salvations
Pray for the lower faiths

The story book's been read
And every line believed
Curriculum's been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized

Jerry spent some time in Michigan
A 20-year vacation, after all he had a dime
A dime is worth a lot more in Detroit
A dime in California, a twenty dollar fine

Jerry only stayed a couple months
It's hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the ass
Asphyxiation is simple and fast
It beats 17 fun years of being someone's bitch

Don't think (stay)
Drink your wine (home)
Watch the fire burn (be)
His problem's not mine (safe)
Be that model citizen

I wish I had a schilling
(For each senseless killing) with every senseless killing
I'd buy a government
America's for sale
And you can get a good deal on it (a good deal on it)
And make a healthy profit

Or maybe tear it apart
Start with assumption
That a million people are smart
Smarter than one

Serotonin's gone
She gave up, drifted away

Sara fled, thought process gone
She left her answering machine on
The greeting left spoken sincere
Messages no one will ever hear

Ten thousand messages a day
A million more transmissions lay
Victims of the laissez-faire
Ten thousand voices, a hundred guns
A hundred messages turn to one
One bullet, one empty head
With serotonin gone (gone)

The man who used to speak performs a cute routine
Feel a little patronized
Don't feel bad, they found a way inside your head
And you feel a bit misled
It's not that they don't care, yeah

The television's put a thought inside your head
Like a Barry Manilow jingle
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
A symphonic blank stare, yeah

It doesn't make you care (make you care)
Not designed to make you care (make you care)
They're betting you won't care (that you won't)

Place a wager on your greed
A wager on your pride
Why try to beat them when a million others tried?

We are the queers
Intellectually spayed
We are the whore
Dysfunctionally raised

One more pill to kill the pain
One more pill to kill the pain
One more pill to kill the pain
Living through conformity

One more prayer to keep us safe
One more prayer to keep us warm
One more prayer to keep us safe
There's gonna be a better place

Lost the battle, lost the war
Lost the things worth living for
Lost the will to win the fight
One more pill to kill the pain

Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na

The going get tough, the tough get debt
Pay attention, pay the rent
The next of kin pay for your sins
A little faith should keep us safe

(Save us) the human
(Existence) is failing
(Resistance) essential
(The future) written off
(The odds are) astronomically against us
(Only moron and genius)
Would fight a losing battle
(Against the super ego)
When giving in is so damn comforting

And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth but prefer lies
Lies are simple, simple is bliss
Why go against tradition when we can
Admit defeat, live in decline
Be the victim of our own design
The status quo, built on suspect
Why would anyone stick out their neck?

Fellow members
Club "We've got ours"
I'd like to introduce you to our host
He's got his and I've got mine
Meet the decline

We are the queer
We are the whore
Ammunition
In the class war

We are workers
We love our queen
We sacrifice
We're soilent green

We are the queer
We are the whore
Ammunition
In the class war