Rent

(album: Rent (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - 1996)

[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

[MARK & ROGER:]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[MARK:]
We light candles

[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

[MARK & ROGER:]
And they're turning blue!

[MARK:]
You light up a mean blaze

[ROGER:]
With posters

[MARK:]
And screenplays

[MARK & ROGER:]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[JOANNE:]
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!

[COLLINS:]
How do you stay on your feet
When on every street
It's 'trick or treat'
And tonight its '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

[MARK & ROGER:]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[BENNY:]
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 them all out in the long run

Forces are gathering
Forces are gathering
Can't turn away
Forces are gathering

[COLLINS:]
Ughhhh
Ughhhh
Ughhhh I can't think
Ughhhh
Ughhhh
Ughhhh I need a drink

[MARK:]
"The music ignites the night with
Passionate fire"

[JOANNE:]
Maureen, I'm not a theatre person

[ROGER:]
"The narration crackles and pops with
Incendiary wit"

[JOANNE:]
Could never be a theatre person

[MARK:]
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

[MARK & ROGER:]
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[JOANNE:]
Hello?

[MARK:]
Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay, all right, I'll go!

[MARK, 1/2 of COMPANY:]
How do you leave the past behind
When it keep finding ways to get to your heart
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
'Til you're torn apart
Rent

[ROGER, 1/2 of COMPANY:]
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray

[COMPANY:]
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, 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

[COMPANY:]
When they act tough
You call their bluff

[MARK & ROGER:]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK & ROGER & 1/2 THE COMPANY:]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK & ROGER & OTHER 1/2:]
We're not gonna pay

[COMPANY:]
Last year's rent
This year's rent
Next year's rent

Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent

[MARK & ROGER:]
Cause everything is rent