I Could Laugh (Live at the Warehouse, 3/12/88)

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 1]
Mama don't understand
She wants to hold my hand
Night and day
And she don't like my clothes, man
They're wearing thin
On her nerves
And she don't like my hair, and
My glorious crown
Kinda brings her down
She won't take me serious, huh
Think I'll join the circus
Be a clown

[Chorus 1]
And they'll all laugh
They'll all laugh
They'll all laugh
It's not funny, no

[Verse 2]
Oh, 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]
And I'll laugh
And I'll laugh
Oh, I'll laugh
It's not funny, no
It's not funny, no

[Verse 3]
Well, I wonder what'll get me off
And so I, 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 I came
It's a crying shame
But all the same

[Chorus 3]
I laugh
Yes, I laugh
Oh, I laugh
It's not funny at all

[Verse 4]
Should I recall
All the people
I have hurt along the way?
Should I try to justify
Every wrong I did not right?
But two wrongs don't make it right
And so it keeps me up at night
And then I lie awake and while away the meanwhile
And meanwhile, meanwhile should 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 should I sit
And let my eyes get filled with mist
For every dream I had and missed
And every girl that I should not have kissed
Oh, and all the broken family ties
And all the loved ones I have missed?
Yeah, I have mist, I have mist, I have mist in my eyes
And so I cry, but why should I, should I

[Chorus 4]
When I could laugh?
I could laugh
Oh, laugh, oh, laugh
It's not funny
It's not funny

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 5]
Oh, and every single thing 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
Broken dreams and shattered mirrors, over and over
That I keep looking in to kinda check my luck or skill?
But only pride
Yeah, pride
Only pride
Only pride keeps staring back, and still

[Chorus 5]
I laugh
Still I laugh

[Verse 6]
Oh, but none of this
Of course, will stand
When I stand before the man
On the great day
Of the great divide
When all the kings
Queens are gonna have their closets emptied
And bones, they're all just gonna fall out
Yeah, them bones, them bones, them bones, them bones
Them dry bones ain't gonna fail
No
Dead men will tell tales

[Chorus 6]
And you can laugh
Oh, and I can laugh
We can laugh, laugh, laugh
It's not funny
And you can laugh
Laugh
Oh, but, oh, but
It's not funny
Funny
It's not funny
Oh
No, my money make it funny
No, not the good times
The dimes you spend
No

[Guitar Solo]