National Straitjacket Songtext
von Y O U

In a neighborhood right next to yours
There′s a car in the garage you never could afford
A pretty girl should probably leave you bored
Like the ignorant signs up in every yard
There's a ballplayer who seldom scored
And he′s leaning back on his lack of glory
Like it's a tissue warm to dry his tears
It's so sad

On a hillside rendered unrecognizable
A reporter′s slowly setting the table
For a student who is willing and able
While a candidate whose lead is unstable
Is debating an artist so undefinable
That she counts on eccentricity
To explain all the things that don′t come out right
It's so sad (so sad)

Broken trust is rolling down my street


Smiling and waving to every person it meets
Now there′s a farmer empty-handed in defeat
Waving back, smiling in that same summer heat
While a disconnected cop with no shoes on his feet
Is reaching out for his fallen heroes
And the mistakes they never knew they were making
To me it seems so sad (so sad)
The same mistakes they're still making
So sad (so sad)

Hometown stuck in the same situation
Not enough choices for you

New town offering the same accommodations
Too ready to choose
Right, right

In a clearing at the top of a mountain
They′re a hundred million strong and counting
Being baptized in the drinking fountain
I can't hear myself think thanks to all the shouting
I never knew it took so much angry touting
To save a couple wayward souls
From the sins of the city and the things that they learn
It′s so sad (so sad)


In a box where nothing ever grows
A beggar is wearing your clothes
He's standing right there at the window
Of a stockholder who no matter what knows
While marines are out there crawling on soiled elbows
Protecting us from fire, brimstone, and ourselves
Like a national straitjacket
It's so sad

A national straitjacket
So fucking sad