Album: American Life (2003)

Mother And Father

There was a time I was happy in my life
There was a time I believed I'd live forever
There was a time I prayed to Jesus Christ
There was a time I had a mother
It was nice

Nobody else would ever take the place of you
Nobody else could do the things that you could do
No one else I guess could hurt me like you did
I didn't understand, I was just a kid

[Bridge:]

Oh mother, why aren't you here with me
No one else saw the things that you could see
I'm trying hard to dry my tears
Yes father, you know I'm not so free

[Chorus:]

I've got to give it up
Find someone to love me
I've got to let it go
Find someone that I can care for
I've got to give it up
Find someone to love me
I've got to let it go
Find someone that I can care for

There was a time I was happy in my life
There was a time I believed I'd live forever
There was a time I prayed to Jesus Christ
There was a time I had a mother
It was nice

[bridge]
[chorus]

My mother died when I was five
And all I did was sit and cry
I cried and cried and cried all day
Until the neighbors went away

They couldn't take my loneliness
I couldn't take their phoniness
My father had to go to work
I used to think he was a jerk

I didn't know his heart was broken
And not another word was spoken
He became a shadow of
The father I was dreaming of

I made a vow that I would never need
Another person ever
Turned my heart into a cage
A victim of a kind of rage

I gotta give it up
[repeat twice]

[chorus]

Find someone that I can care for
Find someone that I can care for

I've got to give it up
[repeat five times]

I've got to let it go
I've got to give it up
Oh mother, oh father
I've got to give it up

I gotta give it up
[repeat six times]