Rent

How do you document real life
When real life's getting more like fiction each day?
Headlines, bread-lines
Blow my mind
And now this deadline
"Eviction, or pay"
Rent!

How do you write a song
When the chords sound wrong?
Though they once sounded right and rare
When the notes are sour
Where is the power
You once had to ignite the air?

And we're hungry and frozen
Some life that we've chosen

How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?

We light candles

How do you start a fire
When there's nothing to burn?
And it feels like something's stuck in your flue

How can you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet?
And they're turning blue!
You light up a mean blaze
With posters and screenplays

How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?

Don't scream, Maureen
It's me, Joanne
Your substitute production manager
Hey, hey, hey! (Did you eat?)
Don't change the subject, Maureen
But darling, you haven't eaten all day

You won't throw up
You won't throw up
The digital delay
Didn't blow up (exactly)
There may have been one teeny tiny spark
You're not calling Mark!

How do you stay on your feet
When on every street it's 'trick or treat'?
And tonight it's 'trick'
'Welcome back to town'
Oh, I should lie down
Everything's brown
And oh I feel sick

Where is he?
Getting dizzy

How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?

Allison, baby, you sound sad
I don't believe those two
After everything I've done
Ever since our wedding
I'm dirt, they'll see
I can help them all out in the long run

(Forces are gathering) the music ignites the night
(Forces are gathering) with passionate fire
Maureen, I'm not a theater person

(Can't turn away) the narration crackles and pops
(Forces are gathering) with incendiary wit
Could never be a theater person

(Forces are gathering) zoom in as they burn the past
(Forces are gathering) to the ground
And feel the heat of the future's glow

Hello?
Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay, all right, I'll go!

How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
'Til you're torn apart
Rent!

How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray?

What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting, winds of change
Keep ripping away?

Draw a line in the sand and then make a stand
Use your camera to spar
Use your guitar
When they act tough, you call their bluff

We're not gonna pay
We're not gonna pay
We're not gonna pay
Last year's rent

This year's rent
Next year's rent
Rent, rent, rent, rent, rent
We're not gonna pay rent
'Cause everything is rent



Credits
Writer(s): Jonathan D. Larson
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

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