MARK
How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?
Headlines - bread-lines blow my mind
And now this deadline "Eviction - or pay"
Rent!
ROGER
How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong,
though they once sounded right and rare? When the notes are sour
Where is the power you once had to ignite the air?
MARK
And we're hungry and frozen
ROGER
Some life that we've chosen
ROGER & MARK
How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay? Last year's rent?
ROGER
How do you start a fire when there's nothing
to burn and it feels like something's stuck in your flue?
MARK
How can you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet?
ROGER & MARK
And they're turning blue!
MARK
You light up a mean blaze
ROGER
With posters -
MARK
And screenplays
ROGER & MARK
How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay? Last year's rent?
COLLINS
How do you stay on your feet when on every street
It's "trick or treat" and tonight it's "trick"
"Welcome back to town" I should lie down
Everything's brown, and uh-oh
I feel sick
MARK
Where is he?
COLLINS
Getting dizzy
ROGER & MARK
How we gonna pay
TENANTS
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
ROGER, MARK & TENANTS
Last year's rent
MARK
"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"
ROGER
"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit"
MARK
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground
ROGER & MARK
And feel the heat of the future's glow
How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
"Til you're torn apart
Rent!
ROGER, MARK & TENANTS
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray!
What binds the fabric together
When the ranging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away!
BENNY
Draw a line in the sand
And then make a stand!
ROGER
Use your camera to spar
MARK
Use your guitar
TENANTS
When they act tough - you call their bluff
ROGER & MARK
We're not gonna pay
ROGER, MARK & TENANTS
We're not gonna pay
We're not gonna pay
Last year's rent! This year's rent!
Next year's rent
Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent!!
'Cause everything is RENT!!!