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?      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?      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?      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 I should lie down   Everything's brown and uh-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?      The music ignites the night with passionate fire   The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit   Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground   And feel the heat of the future's glow      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 they're 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