I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Drug boy steady shootin'
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
Now, since I was planted at birth
I abandoned my own planet and I landed on Earth
As a kid I never understood what I observed
Some of it was strange but most of it disturbing
Always in detention for the lack of my attention
You can call it deficit, really I just didn't listen
And I was always missin', the teacher's like, "Where is Bobby Simmons?"
But trying to get a record deal was all I can remember
It's funny, 'cause looking back on the past that I had,
On my days in the streets trying to prove that I was bad
I still elevated to the level that I'm at
(Still elevated to the level that I'm at)
Drug boy steady shootin'
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
Sometimes it's hard to grow
While living in fear of the unknown
How can he ever give love
When no love is in his heart?
A child can barely sleep at night
Too worried about tomorrow
And what it beholds, he drowns out
Deep down in his sorrows
Will you run or will you shine your light?
Tell a story of live and try?
See it when we're giving hope
That we know that we can grow
Drug boy steady shootin'
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
Now, since I was planted at birth
I abandoned my own planet and I landed on Earth
As a kid I never understood what I observed
Some of it was strange but most of it disturbing
Always in detention for the lack of my attention
You can call it deficit, really I just didn't listen
And I was always missin', the teacher's like, "Where is Bobby Simmons?"
But trying to get a record deal was all I can remember
It's funny, 'cause looking back on the past that I had,
On my days in the streets trying to prove that I was bad
I still elevated to the level that I'm at
(Still elevated to the level that I'm at)
Drug boy steady shootin'
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
Sometimes it's hard to grow
While living in fear of the unknown
How can he ever give love
When no love is in his heart?
A child can barely sleep at night
Too worried about tomorrow
And what it beholds, he drowns out
Deep down in his sorrows
Will you run or will you shine your light?
Tell a story of live and try?
See it when we're giving hope
That we know that we can grow
Drug boy steady shootin'
The streets don't give a damn
They're filled with such pollution
The kids don't stand a chance
We're trapped inside the matrix
Forced to play our hand
We're filled with so much hatred
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
I said the kids don't
The kids don't stand
The kids don't stand a chance
Lyrics submitted by whybother737
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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I think this song is to do with how we are to blame for the horrific lives of the younger generation, that this destruction of the planet (pollution) and violence in the streets that we are getting the younger generation to worry about is really our fault. They don't stand a chance to fix this problem, or live their lives worry free. That their rebellion (to show that they are 'bad') is because of their mentors (older generation) and that they're 'trapped inside the matrix' and won't ever get out. This song and lyrics means so much to me, love it.