Lyrics:

How do you document real life
When real life's getting more like fiction each day?
Headlines, bread-lines blow my mind
Then now this deadline, eviction or pay rent
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?
And we're hungry and frozen, some life that we've chosen
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's rent?
We light candles

How do you start a fire when there's nothing to burn
And it feels like something's stuck in your flue?
How can you generate heat when you can't feel your feet
And they're turning blue?
You light up a mean blaze with posters and screenplays
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's rent?
Don't screen, Maureen, it's me, Joanne
Your substitute production manager
Hey, hey, hey, did you eat?
Don't change the subject Maureen
But darling, you haven't eaten all day
You won't throw up
You won't throw up
The digital delay
Didn't blow up, exactly
There may have been one teeny tiny spark
You're not calling Mark
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, oh, I should lie down
Everything's brown and uh-oh, I feel sick
Where is he? Getting dizzy
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's rent?

Allison, baby, you sound sad
I don't believe those two, after everything I've done
Ever since our wedding, I'm dirt, they'll see
I can help 'em all out in the long run
The music ignites the night with passionate fire
(Maureen, I'm not a theatre person)
The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit
(Could never be a threatre person)
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground
And feel the heat of the future's glow
(Hello?)
Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay, alright, I'll go
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
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray?
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away?
Draw a line in the sand and then make a stand
Use your camera to spar, use your guitar
When they act tough, you call their bluff
We're not gonna pay
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