You can't be what you were
So you better start being
Just what you are
You can't be what you were
The time is now
It's running out
It's running out
It's running, running, running out
You can't be what you were
So you better start living the life
That you're talking about
You can't be what you were
There's no movement
There's no movement
There's no movement
In a bad mouth
It betrays a bad mind
There's no movement
There's no movement
There's no movement
In a bad mouth
It betrays a bad mind
There's no movement
There's no movement
It betrays a bad mind
There's no movement
There's no movement
There's no movement
In a bad mouth
It betrays a bad mind
You're always talking, talking, talking, talking, talking shit now
But you will talk yourself down
You're going way down
I don't mean to be rude, but Fugazi is NOT emo. As far as I'm concerned there is no such thing as emo. Guy Picciotto even said in an interview that it was an insult to him that people thought Fugazi invented emo because emo was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. He said if they started emo then does that mean that bands like Bad Brains were robots? I love Fugazi, but like Picciotto says, there's no such thing as emo.
The lyrics are missing the last line:
"Your always talking talking talking talking shit now... but you will talk yourself down Your going down!"
Also Picciotto considers every band he's ever been in to be punk rock.
stop talking about a word
A friend and I used this song along with others that were important to us at the time (Bad Religion's 'Henchman''Against the Grain', for example) as a sort of 'brain default' to help us with a hard time we were going through. Consider when you see a ray of light after feeling dead for a long time, and then how easy it is to turn over and go back to bed when confronted with the hard work of change or personal progress. Maybe it's drugs, or some serious depression, or being an idiot in a broken relationship- punk rock has served to help not only break what needs to be broken but provided encouragement and strength for what needs to be fixed.
That includes this song.
Yeah, and fuck 'emo'.
Fugazi is not only punk...it is the dictionary definition of punk. It seems strange to say that when you realize how smart they are. Rent or buy the "Instrument" DVD and see the live version of this song that Ian turns into a rant on violence. Awesome
blah blah blah emo blah blah. shut up. So anyways, put simply this song is about living in the here and now. It's saying that the past is futile.
this song is so great. first of all, ian mckaye is just a genius, and second of all, this song is super fun to dance to. i decided that when i'm a senior, "you can't be what you were, so you better start being just what you are," is going to be the quote under my picture in my yearbook. true til death.
hell.yes.fugazi.is.so.good.i.love.this.song
Actually, it's Piciotto's previous band, Rites of Spring, that's credited with inventing emo, as stupid as that is. Its a shame that 'emo' is now Dashboard Confessional and Saves the Day.