[sketchyjoe]

YOU CAN'T SKIM STONES IN YOUR BEER

The hippies want free love and the punks want free hate
But it's no longer '77, and was it ever really '68?
I fight the power every morning by waking up late
As I'd rather smash sobriety than ever try to smash the state

Because I'm happy as a Great War soldier on MDMA
And my mercy seat is just a broken cubicle door away
The pause button's broken so I have to let the CD play
That's a bad metaphor for life but I like it so it'll stay

Do you remember being a pre-teen tearaway?
When everything adults said was just a white noise hiss
But you can't watch the sky when you need your senses dulled
And you can't skim stones in an alley's puddle of piss
Do you remember all those wild days?
When we explored with wonder and saw everything clear
But you can't climb trees when the deadline's tomorrow
And you can't skim stones in your beer

There's a rapper on the radio, telling me he's for real
But the song's crap except for samples of Curtis Mayfield
And when your best creative effort's finding something good to steal
Maybe you shouldn't make yourself out to be such a big deal

I get drunk on disillusionment every single dreary day
But I'm not reflecting the rain as pathetic fallacy's so cliche
The madness in my method puts design in my disarray
And my cynicism's the one belief I know I'll never betray

Do you remember being a pre-teen tearaway?
Playing drenched in sweat, never stopping to think
But you can't bundle a grown man without getting arrested
And you can't skim stones in a sick-filled sink
Do you remember all those wild days?
When every chair was a mountain range and you were a mountaineer
But you can't make a den out of office furniture
And you can't skim stones in your beer

I'm as confused with where I am now as a fifties soldier on LSD
How do I know people so indie they were conceived ironically?
And I wonder if the only thing I'll get from my degree
Is a shelf full of unread books to make me look smart intellectually

But nothing's half as bad as self-pity to wallow in
And full-blooded virtue is always topped by hollow sin
These pills taste better than the official line you're swallowing
If we ever go the same way, fuck you if you think I'm following

I remember being a pre-teen tearaway
But when did we lose our freedom and when did we gain our fear?
Because you can't play tag on a crowded tube train
And I can't skim stones in my beer
But what's the use of remembering all those wild days?
Because we can't ever go back and repeat the past
And if we can't skim stones in our beer
Maybe we should get a bigger glass