Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards

If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a communist

The factories are closing and the army's full
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the chosen few

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards

At twenty one you're on to of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards


Lyrics submitted by Madame Me

To Have And To Have Not song meanings
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    General Comment

    I saw Rancid a couple years ago and they did an acoustic version of this song. Also there's a version on youtube where they're live in Japan and Lars plays it electric w/ no accompaniment like the original and like he plays "The War's End" in concert (a song that referenced Billy Bragg). Lars changes the last verse to say: Well at 21 you're on top of the scrap heap At 16 you were on top of your class Well I dropped out of high school in Campbell, California Got a guitar and I never looked back

    Being a dropout, guitarist and native Northern Californian I gotta say this lyric hits home and good covers are when the artist makes it their own.

    Bender is greaton November 26, 2008   Link

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