Eyedea - How Much Do You Pay? lyrics

No one really understands the
Experience that jades logic
And paves an agnostic place to lay
And decay in toxic waste
So most carry identity paraphernalia to
Familiarize with smiles neatly
Painted on a robotic face but not this man
He played the bucket with his hands
And got paid by whatever change
People would drop in his can
Twenty-three years ago he was
A lawyer by description
But, I guess all of a sudden
He resigned from that position
But, I've never seen the sky quite
As clear as his eyes
As his blistered fingers beat
Down on the plastic and in a twisted sort of
Way it all makes sense
While they rush to die he
Provides the soundtrack so tragic


He sit's on the corner of 7th and 1st
And I was thirsty for the answer
To a question anyone would nurse
One day I asked him why he gave up his career
He said, "I didn't
I just took off the name tag" then he added
Make Money and die that's the American Way
It don't matter what name you gave
The bucket that you play
Make Money and die that's the American Way
It don't matter what name you gave
The bucket that you play

So I took in what was said
But I didn't accept it
Well maybe I did I mean
I just wouldn't admit it
I was too committed to the belief that
All the hard work from now would
Improve my future existence somehow
So I said
You don't accomplish nothing sitting
In the street
And I'm sure you barely survive
Off the pennies you gather he said
To your surprise I make enough to eat
And I accomplish just as much as you
Only I stop pretending my job matters
He looked me in my face and
Told me I was a puppet
And what I do is no more
Important than playing a bucket
I still hear his voice when I
Set my alarm before bed
I never could wash what he said out
Of my head, so fuck it, it goes

Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
It don't matter what name you gave
The bucket that you play
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
It don't matter what name you gave
The bucket that you play
See I can dress myself up in a
White coat and say I'm a doctor
Carry an arm on my belt buckle with a
Gold badge and say I'm a copper
Maybe I'm just a sloppy lazy crazy
Carbon copy part of the heartlessly
Deranged nation that gave me the
Generation ecstasy under water, i forgot
The survivor of the mind washed and
Slaughtered i've watched your offers
Caught your calls and
Called your forefathers my bosses
Lost it all in the name of gaining enough
To spend
Consuming the youth since those pray
In doom for the hand my friends, see
When I saw my man playing away on his drum
Something clicked in my brain and
I became less numb
I'm working for bread crumbs
Pretending there's a meaning
But my employment is just a bucket
I'm desperately beating
And one day, I'll be old and retired
Looking at my life like what
A waste of good fire
All because school never taught me
How to be inspired
And the job concerned applying to
Myself just wouldn't hire

Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
It don't matter what name you gave
The bucket that you play
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
Make Money and die that's the American Way
But hey here's my application
How much do y'all pay