Derry's Blues

I heard on the news somebody found

A hundred black crows lyin' dead on the ground,

Stretched out 'cross the fields in a great big X,

Looks like someone's casting a hex.

And the suits and the ties sharin' their views--

Don't make waves and always shine your shoes.

Root for the team, don't put nothin' down,

'Cause we all pull together in this college town.

So why do you play that music,

Why did you leave home,

Why do you end up sick every night

On somebody's bathroom floor.

I sleep on porches, I eat what I steal,

My whole world turns 'round on bicycle wheels.

I dropped out of school the first week of May,

My family shook my hand and threw me away.

I crash the parties, I sneak in the shows,

I'm hungry for something I don't even know;

I stumble away, I feign unconcern,

But I hear your words when my back is turned,

Sayin' why do you play that music,

Words that you don't know,

Why do you waste your life like you do,

And don't you have somewhere to go.

Well I'm gonna make some noise.

TV preachers, conservative shills,

Point to me for society's ills;

Friends that I knew just pass me by,

I'm just a light fadin' in their eyes.

Out on the corner, weary and beat,

I see all the money blowin' down the street;

Sun goes down and here come the cops,

But I'll run with the music 'til my heartbeat stops;

Sayin' why do you play that music,

Aren't there better things to do,

Why don't you just look around

And see there's no place here for you.

So I'm gonna make some noise.