Lyrics Rent

[MARK]
How do you document real life
When real life is getting more
Like fiction each day
Headlines -- bread-lines
Blow my mind
And now this deadline
"Eviction -- or pay"
Rent!

[ROGER]
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

[MARK]
And we're hungry and frozen

[ROGER]
Some life that we've chosen

[TOGETHER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[ROGER]
How do you start a fire
When there's nothing to burn
And it feels like something's stuck in your flue

[MARK]
How can you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet

[BOTH]
And they're turning blue!

[MARK]
You light up a mean blaze

[ROGER]
With posters --

[MARK]
And screenplays

[ROGER AND MARK]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[COLLINS]
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'
Oh, I should lie down
Everything's brown
And uh -- oh
I feel sick

[MARK]
Where is he?

[COLLINS]
Getting dizzy

[MARK AND ROGER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[MARK (reading from a script page)]
"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"

[ROGER]
"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit"

[MARK]
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

[MARK AND ROGER]
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[MARK AND HALF OF COMPANY]
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
Till you're torn apart
Rent!

[ROGER AND OTHER HALF OF COMPANY]
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray

[ALL]
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away

[BENNY]
Draw a line in the sand
And then make a stand

[ROGER]
Use your camera to spar

[MARK]
Use your guitar

[ALL]
When they act tough - you call their bluff

[MARK AND ROGER]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK AND ROGER WITH HALF OF COMPANY]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK AND ROGER WITH OTHER HALF OF COMPANY]
We're not gonna pay

[ALL]
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