I Could Laugh (Live at DK’s, 1988)

Lyrics

[Spoken Intro] We'd like to leave you with this last number. Because you are beautiful. We'd like to thank you for coming to our concert. Hopefully, y'all go out and buy the record and bug these people that own this place, they'll bring us back, and we'll come back and play the exact same concert. No, hopefully by then we'll have some more relevant and pertinent songs for your liking. Thank you very much. [Verse 1] Mama don't understand She wants to hold my hand Night and day And she don't like my clothes, and They're wearing thin On her nerves And she don't like my hair, and My glorious crown Brings her down And she won't take me serious Think I'll join the circus Be a clown [Chorus 1] And they'll all laugh They'll all laugh They'll all laugh But it's not funny, no [Verse 2] And I'm restless Wanna bust out of my skin Got a rocket In my pocket Got no fuel No charted course Got no direction No, they did not give me those in school Yes, I've been a fool for cool But no kind of hair, no shoes, no jacket's Gonna help me to hack it, hack it Hack it to pieces, man, I've had it And you can have it [Chorus 2] Then I'll laugh And I'll laugh Whoa, I'll laugh It's not funny at all [Verse 3] Should I recall All the people I have hurt along the way? Then I try to justify Every wrong I did not right But two wrongs don't make it right And so they keep me up at night And I lie awake and while away the meanwhile And meanwhile Meanwhile I dwell On the baby that I killed Or the drink I should have not refilled And every heart I've broke in two and left to die Bleeding on the roadside Or I could sit Let my eyes get filled with mist For every girl that I should not have kissed And all the broken family ties The loved ones I have missed Yes, I have mist in my eyes And so I cry, but why should I, should I [Chorus 3] When I could laugh? I could laugh I could laugh But it's not funny, no It's not funny, no It's not funny, no It's not [Verse 4] Well, I wonder what'll get me off So I pick and choose and take And in a couple years, you're right, I'm left with A great big heartache so deep and wide That no matter What I stuff inside, it's empty Just the way it came It's a crying shame But all the same [Chorus 4] I laugh Oh, I laugh Yes, I laugh But it's not funny It's not funny [Verse 5] Ah, everything I've got, I'm gonna lose, both good and bad will pass And what next? What lies beyond the broken dreams And shattered mirrors I keep looking in to check my luck or skill? But only pride Only pride Only pride Only pride keeps staring back, and still [Chorus 5] I laugh Still I laugh [Verse 6] And none of this Of course, will stand When I stand Before the man On that great day Of the great divide When all the queens and kings Will have their closets emptied And the bones will all fall out Them bones, them dry bones will not fail Dead men will tell tales [Chorus 6] And you can laugh And I can laugh And we can laugh It's not funny, no I can laugh You can laugh We can laugh It's not funny, no And I can laugh We can laugh We all can laugh our butts off, but it ain't funny, funny No, no, no, not funny No, no, no, it's not funny No amount of money Will make things sunny No Playboy bunnies You can laugh It's not, it's not [Guitar Solo] [Outro] Thanks an awful lot. Goodnight.