Wettin Down The Dirt Lyrics

You can build it up or you can break it down
You can tell it, "Kid, you're on the wrong side of the town."
You can wear it out or you can wisen up
You can drink white risky from your old man's coffee cup*

But don't forget about the time you wasted all those pretty days
Lying silent in the bedroom while they vanished in the haze
The possibilities you'll find will only serve to change your open mind
Lay there long enough and you'll end up getting bored
Until you realize all you need is just the truth and a couple simple bar chords

You can talk and talk or you can shut your mouth
You can burn the photographs in the shed behind the house
You can crane your neck to see the rising sun
Or you can sit and wait for it with an old sod off shot gun
But it'll creep up on behind you from the place you least expect
And then break your bleeding heart before it rings your weary neck
And even though it never quite belongs, sneaks into your every single song
All those petty things you never meant to say
Like, "Hi there, nice to meet you, please drive safely, have a very pleasant day."

You can blink or gawk at the hand that you've been dealed
But either way you know your crops are rottin' in the field
You can go to mass, you can go to church
You can make believe your blood ain't meant for wettin' down the dirt

So throw a palm tree on the fire, girl - watch those leaves ignite
And sing the blues out on some island 40 days and 40 nights
And maybe all that Mexico blood you spill on that cracking bridge of yours will last you until the firelight is gone and leaves you cold
Sleeping with the gray whales, white bones, and black ghosts until the day that you get old

You can protest wars, say the president's a liar
But in this type of town, you're only preaching to the choir
Cause the thing that's gonna get us ain't the one we're protesting
It's all happened before, it will all happen again
And the only thing I claim to know about the enemy
They use a dash of violence and a dire look of subtlety
So go ahead, expose those evil plans
Cause you always got an inside man
Do whatever makes you feel fine
Just know whatever you swallow's always attached to some sort of lie