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 .