One Off Pretender

Living on them pills, he was lying in squalor
That's the life of the late night bar crawler
Most outrageous man I met he once said
I could take a belly full of lead and wouldn't wind up dead

He wanted his song to make you shiver
A little like there's a ghost coming your way
Have you ever been told that something's forever
And had your heart broken the very next day?

Shout it from the rooftop
You can shout it from the rooftop
But you can't tell it to the paper
They've already been paid

To be ten different people that's easy
It's easier than being yourself
I'm the one who pretends that I'm not happy
Picking life off the shelf

He taught me time wasted is time spent well
The a man's dead if he doesn't have a story to tell
Dead if he's lying in a dirty jail cell

'Cause when your down they'll kick you
The jury doesn't matter at all, the jury doesn't matter at all
Tell me officer when your baton kissed me did it make you feel tall?

And no one asked you where you come from
No one told you of these times
No one asked you where you come from
No one told you of these times

This is your life don't waste it
Why don't you run away?
A man to reckon with, he knows how to persuade
You won't get a sun tan in this government shade

Does it make you quiver a little the way they say
That we're gonna fuck you
Take a little bit of freedom away everyday

You can shout it from the rooftops
You can shout it from the rooftops
You can shout it from the rooftops
But you can't tell it to the paper
They've already been paid