I think I know where all my problems come from (California)

I never really had the guts to look under that log

I need them all, all, all to love meBut they see through me so easy

I wish I could believe in your God

Sounds fun

We could throw rocks out of heaven

I get these dark thoughts every day now

I never thought I′d be that one

Good news I'm way too scared to do it

And I have too much fun being scared

I′m in this for life

Like it or not

I'm not going anywhere, anywhere

I'm in this for life

Like it or not

You will have to drag me by the neck

I′m not gonna bail

Writing on the ceiling of the box while the coffin the nailed

California dreamin′ while the demons are hot on our tail

Hop a curb, yes that was me offa the trail officer

No, I don't have a good reason

I was just in a mood to go seeking

Heard a hard poem, it had my heart thumpin′

Start my blood pumping again

This one is for the people who raised me up

It's for the people who raised me up

If you remember one thing then remember how it felt

When you felt for the first time

This one is for the people who raised me up

It′s for the people who raised me up

If you remember one thing then remember how it felt

I'm in this for life

I′m not going anywhere, anywhere

I'm in this for life

Drag me by the neck

You want your holy grail

Try not to overthink it

I try but always fail

But I want it so damn bad

I'm addicted to life

If I lived how I thought that you want me to live

I don′t think you′d like what you got

If I shot my poetry out of a cannon

Would it make it any better?

If you fill a gun with glitter

What'll become of the bullet

If you′re only suffering under a vail

I'm in this for life

Like it or not

I′m not going anywhere, anywhere

I'm in this for life

Like it or not

You will have to drag me by the neck

This one is for the people who raised me up

It′s for the people who raised me up

If you remember one thing then remember how it felt

When you felt for the first time

This one is for the people who raised me up

It's for the people who raised me up

If you remember one thing then remember how it felt

I dreamed I understood myself completely

We were having a party in a house falling out of the sky

Every clique showed up

The ones who love the small of gasoline

The shy beautifuls

The microphone eaters

The gimme gimme gimmes

The maybe next years

The boring childhooders who trashed their lives for fun

The house rotated as it made it through the storm

Eyeball-sized hail sailed sideways through the windows

As the single pane

Survived-the-great-fire hundred-year-old glass all smashed

We laughed and dropped the hailstones in our drinks and danced

We started chanting some optimistic that

We knew was maybe mostly bullshit

But that if we even still felt one tenth of one percent how we felt

In that moment in the morning that it would be an

Energy that could shake neighborhoods from their foundations

We dragged ourselves on a twenty-mile

Mission to fill our goblets in the kitchen

I got stopped by a hallway goblin named Frank who said he once dreamed

Karl Marx and Rosa Parks were beating the

Shit out of him which gave him a full body orgasm

I told him my dad analyzes dreams for a living

And believes they're portals to the subconscious

And I believe him and I don′t judge you, we′re all weirdos

My dad still refuses to drive

Beamers because they made cars for Hitler

But I always suspected that was convenient logic

For a family that could only afford used station wagons

I told him how in a drawer in my house I found

A matchbook from my dad's 1955 Bar Mitzvah

It still has nine dry unused matches

That haven′t been torn from the cardboard

It's a time machine and remains my second most prized possession

Do you understand this Frank?

You′re in the presence of a motherfucker who owns fire from the past

Can you imagine getting high with a flame from 1955? Can you?

Do you feel connected to your ancestors? Do you?

Do you ever feel strange? Wonder how the world's gaze has shaped you?

Do you fear being shaken by the shoulders like an etch a sketch

Being mugged for your memories?, I do

They are my first most prized possession

My very first memory was sitting in high

Chairs with my brother the day the Bay ripped in two

The earthquake shook the China from the

Shelves and we clapped because we didn′t understand

I told him how my mother's father died in a plane crash

I told him how my brother grew up to be a pilot

And that the captain which apparently the building had and was

My brother, came over the intercom, which apparently the building had

And alerted the party that house was starting the spin faster and

Soon it would be time for us to hit the ground

So either buckle your seatbelts

Say your prayers or find someone who wants to fuck you

China was smashing against the ceiling

Me and Frank said our goodbyes easily once I realized I'd been having

A conversation in the mirror the whole time

I climbed out a window

Hung onto a drain pipe and watched the stars paint the sky

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

I see the ghosts on every corner

Of the people that we used to be

So many that they sit upon the shoulders

Of their brothers and their sisters

As our city slips into the sea

Danny in DC Tee getting stomped in the head on Clement St

Kids in the black boots

Dad′s got the long hair, dad′s hired, getting fired

Everybody wave me in the ambulance

Mom's got my pills in the paper bag, bills on the table

That was before they were really real people

And the punks grabbed my bike in the Safeway parking lot

Chased ′em for five blocks, never got it back

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

We were already fading, we just didn't know it yet

Holdin′ onto the lie of my perfection tucked

Under my arm like a late Blockbuster cassette

And fuck yeah, I was hard for Miss Popular

Been jockin' her but she couldn′t see where I sat with binoculars

Binaca stashed in my pocket, shot my good shot

The good Lord, she blocked it

Cherish the small tragedies

The big ones are smokin' out in the bathroom

And loiterin' for the moment when nobody sees ′em comin′

An openin' they can jump in and make a total catastrophe

My family tried to hold it together

But now that we can′t hold it together

We'll hold each other closer instead

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

Little boxes

On the hillside

Elbows ass and my knees and toes

I got my elbows ass and my knees and toes

Danny in the deep blue sea getting wasted on the MUNI out to DP

Kids with the tall cans

Dad′s got the short hair, Dad's not retired quite yet

Everybody wave me in the ambulance

Mom plays guitar and she sings to us at night

That was before we were really real people

And the punks grabbed my bike in the Safeway parking lot

Chased ′em for five blocks, never got it back

Little boxes on the hillside

There's a blue one and a yellow one

And they all look just the same