National Straitjacket

In a neighborhood right next to yours,

There's a car in the garage you never could afford,

A pretty girl, she'd probably leave you, bored,

Like the ignorant signs up in every yard,

There's a ballplayer who's seldom scored,

And he's leaning back on his lack of glory

Like it's a tissue worn to dry his tears,

It's so sad.

On a hillside rendered unrecognizable,

A reporter slowly sat at a table

For a student who is willing & able,

While a candidate whose lead is unstable

Is debating an artist so unrefinable

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 & waving to every person it meets,

Now there's a farmer empty-handed in defeat,

Waving back, smiling, in that same summer heat,

While the disconnected cop with no shoes on his feet,

Is reaching out for his balding 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. (So sad)

Hometown stuck in the same situation,

Not enough choices for you.

New town offering the same accomodations,

Too many to choose. (Right, right)

In a clearing at the top of a mountain,

They're a hundred million strong & countin',

Getting baptised in the drinking fountain,

I can't hear myself think thanks to all of the shoutin',

I never knew it took so much anger toutin'

To save a couple wayward souls

From the sins of the city & the things that they learned,

It's so sad. (So sad)

In a box where nothing ever grows,

A beggar is wearing the clothes,

He's standing right there at the window

Of a stockholder, who no matter what knows,

While Marines are out there crawling on sore elbows,

Protecting us from fire & brimstone & ourselves,

Like a national straitjacket, it's so sad.

A national straijacket, so sad.

(Yeah!)