A Kid from the Suburbs

Intro - Instrumental, 4 counts

Verse 1 - Voices 1 and 2

[Voice 1] Staring out the window at the grey on the glass

Watching ghosts of the weekend in the people that pass

I’m just a kid from the suburbs with a head full of static

Trying to find some logic in a world that’s erratic

Used to kick the footy till the streetlights flickered

Now we’re kicking cans and the skin’s gotten thicker

[Voice 2] The trains rattle by like a heartbeat that’s failing

While I’m leaning on this fence, just another rusty railing

They say the sun’s coming out, but I’m built for the shade

Counting up the debts and the mistakes that I made

A long way from the beach, a long way from the peace

Just another stray dog on a very short leash.

Chorus - Everyone

And it’s a long road home when the sky’s turning black

Carrying the weight of the years on my back

Yeah, the piano weeps for the life that we chose

Underneath the Southern Cross where the cold wind blows

Just a ghost in the city, just a voice in the rain

Trying to find a little bit of sun through the pain.

Verse 2 - Verses 3 and 4

[Voice 3] My old man told me, "Son, keep your chin up and work"

But it’s hard to see the sky when you’re face-down in dirt

I see my mates in the pub, drowning out what they feel

Trading in their dreams for a cheap pub meal

We were meant to be legends, we were meant to be more

Now we’re just another number on a cracked timber floor

[Voice 4] The rhythm of the rails, it’s a lonesome sound

When your roots are too shallow for the Australian ground

I’ve got a notebook of verses and a pocket of air

Searching for a meaning that was never even there

So play the keys soft, let the melody spill

‘Cause if the world doesn’t break you, the silence will.

Instrumental - Breakbeat, record scratching

Verse 3 - Voices 1 and 3

[Voice 1] The coffee’s gone cold and the morning is biting

Another day spent with the demons I’m fighting

I walk past the shops where the shutters are down

A graveyard of dreams in a sleepy-eyed town

Remember the summer, the heat on the bitumen?

We thought we were kings, didn’t know what was hidden

But the drought isn’t just in the dirt and the creek

It’s the look in the mirror when the spirit is weak

[Voice 3] I’m tracing the map of the scars on my palm

The storm’s passed through, but I’m missing the calm

Just a local boy lost in the sprawl of the coast

Chasing the shadow of a life I loved most.

Verse 4 - Voices 2 and 4

[Voice 2] So I pour out a drink for the versions of me

That got lost in the wind or got swept out to sea

The system is rigged and the rent’s going up

While we’re begging for luck from a cracked plastic cup

But there’s beauty in breaking, or so I’ve been told

In the grey of the clouds and the bite of the cold

[Voice 4] I’ll keep stitching these rhymes till the ink runs dry

Underneath the vast expanse of a charcoal sky

The piano keeps talking when I run out of breath

A slow dance with life and a nod toward death

Yeah, the rhythm goes on though the heart skips a beat

Leaving muddy footprints on a one-way street.

Outro - Voice 1 only

Yeah... just let it breathe.

From the concrete to the coast.

Nothing stays the same.

(Piano fades out into the sound of distant rain and a passing train)