The YMCA Down the Street from the Clinic Lyrics

Click on the link for the world’s biggest dick
You can smell the rats are dying
As the ship starts to sink
Down beneath, the poor are in braces and tears
Up against the bars, staring down their years
You told me to kiss you 'cause we were at the end
And I said I wouldn't miss you, 'cause baby, I’d be dead
And that’s the only way, it seems, that I could get away
Otherwise, I’m nothing without you, babe

I got a bad, sick stink, and I’m bathing in the sink
At the YMCA down the street from the clinic
And there’s a sad old man with a sad, saggy ass
Just crying under the electric dryer for your hands
And he’s wet, and he’s dying and the spiders on his nose
Seem to indicate that he’s been keeping warm out in the cold
And he’s a lot like me, I guess….but we’re somehow not the same
They say you really die the last time anybody says your name
Oh

This sweet and sticky dream was nothing that I needed
Just demons to believe; poisons lined up to feed ‘em
And the rings inside this tree are rotten deeper down
Goddamn this fucking town
It’s restless and I’m drowning

I got these black rotten teeth
Cracking off in bloody beef
And I haven’t seen the dentist in at least six thousand weeks
And I’m high on this TV and these whiskeys and these dreams
That I wouldn't dare to follow 'cause I couldn’t dare succeed
So I write down shitty words
So I sit in titty bars
So I text and tweet and look at nudes and beat off in the dark
Back when I was just a boy
They were okay ways to go
But baby, I got old
Somewhere I ditched my soul
Oh

This sweet and sticky dream was nothing that I needed
Just demons to believe; poisons lined up to feed ‘em
And the rings inside this tree are rotten deeper down
Goddamn this fucking town
It’s restless and I’m drowning

We are the lonely seeds
Adrift on burning seas
Just pour the goddamn round
And let’s let these fuckers drown
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Cover art for The YMCA Down the Street from the Clinic lyrics by Lawrence Arms, The

best song from the new album. I think it is about getting older like most songs on the album

Cover art for The YMCA Down the Street from the Clinic lyrics by Lawrence Arms, The

To me, this song is about struggling with alcoholism. He's lost his girl, it sounds like he's lost his home, and he sees his bleak future in the old men at the bar and the man in the bathroom, but he can't break the chains of his addiction.

Cover art for The YMCA Down the Street from the Clinic lyrics by Lawrence Arms, The

I think it goes a little further than what puddlejumper says. I get hints of heroin in the songs. "This sweet and sticky dream was nothing that I needed" "I got a bad, sick stink, and I’m bathing in the sink" - Heroin use makes you smell really bad. "Just demons to believe; poisons lined up to feed ‘em" - Lined up, like train tracks. "I got these black rotten teeth Cracking off in bloody beef" - Heroin causes toothloss

Even the title, down the street from clinic, seem to point to a methadone clinic.

I agree though, definitely one of their best songs.

 
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