Modern World

Sitting alone in his rocking chair
With a pistol in his hand
Karl Dane, got nothing left to give
You see his face at the picture show
In the silent days, the only life he would know
But by the middle of April, he had no reason to live

But when he opened his mouth
Oh, you'd prob'ly say the same
Invention of sound, and Karl Dane was out of the game
Give him a job, five dollars a day
Yeah, the studio told him that was all they would pay
And when they found him dead, he left himself for no one to claim

And it's a modern world that we live in
And you got no place to go
It's a modern world that we live in
And it just ain't made for me

In the show of the freaks, yeah, I would probably guess
You'd find her standing there with hair from her chin to her chest
And then they shut it down, they found it politically incorrect
So it was on with the high heels and off with the beard
When she'd a good shave, she didn't look half weird
So now it's nights on the corners just to come up with rent

And it's a shame the way
Marcel would treat her so unkind
She picked up the pipe to make it through the day
Well, you can find her there
Face down in the curb
Two inches of water in the grave that she lay

And it's a modern world that we live in
And you got no place to go
It's a modern world that we live in
And it just ain't made for me

Jesse James, Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid
Ain't no room inside the world for all the things that they did
Yeah, Rudolph Valentino, even Cool Hand Luke
Just like a king, queen or pharaoh, like a jester or duke
Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jekyll and Hyde
Ed Gein, The Unabomber, Bonnie and Clyde
Randle McMurphy, I think he flew too high

Miles Davis, Ellington, and Holiday
Even Dylan's having trouble tryna make it today
Well, it's a shame to say, "That's just the way that it goes"
Gene Kelly tap-dancing, singing the blues
Bootlegging whiskey, prohibition of booze
I don't know what to do, I just have to learn, I suppose

Well, it's a modern world that we live in
And you got no place to go
It's a modern world that we live in
And it just ain't made for me

It's a modern world that we live in
It's a modern world that we live in
It's a modern world that we live in
It's a modern world that we live in

It's a modern world that we live in
And you got no place to go
It's a modern world that we live in
And it just ain't made for me