Paint By Numbers

C D F     C F G

       C             G               F
on the playground you learned how to share with the kids,
        C            G            F
but you still didn't feel you fit in.
    C               G               F
how fitting your confusion when you turned 16:
         C               F                D              G        C
you knew how to paint by numbers, but you knew it wasn't rock and roll.



            C            G                F
you learned tight pants, spray paint, and eyeliner.
         C               G         D
you said glam rock would save your soul.
        C                         F
but you couldn't grasp that the rebellion you wanted
       D                   G       C
wasn't something you could ever be sold.


                 G                       D               F
and I never understood how someone could be so willing to be
                   G                     D             F
absorbed into what I never thought could pass as identity.
                  D                           C
and I always felt bad for the kids who had to share their faces
         G           D        F
with sad teenagers across the world
            C                       F
who'd found something to fill their loss,
    F           G           C
without ever addressing the cause.



                C                          F
then I saw your speech impediment imitated exactly
             G                         C
by a girl in seattle and a guy in minneapolis,
     C                   F                  G              C
so i guess you must have learned that from tv


    C                   F
you said you'd find yourself for real,
        G                C
but fell that far from the goal-
    C               F                          G7             C
you had to paint by numbers but knew it wasn't r-r-r-r-rock and roll .