The Machine

[Chorus]
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine

[Verse 1: Buffalo Madonna]
I wish I owned a life recorder
Instead of my OCD disorder
Watching reruns of my life
Directors cut, I feel the knife
Jesus, God, we need rewrites
Can’t you see this script is trite?
Kill the scene, hit the lights
Ya’ll make it seem like it’s the life
All you actors play yourselves
Acting like you’re someone else
Holding onto to what you felt
Your skin’s become a prison cell
I can’t watch this montage
It’s so botched; gotta go
I can’t watch—this nostalgia’s lodged in my throat
I can’t stop—smash my watch
Hands of clocks cannot hold
What I’ve got
Can’t be copped
Neither locked in a vault
Most nights I go out drinking
Searching for something to bring home
I come back high and empty
Flying lows like Oxycodone
It’s time to start the show
3,2,1, go
Gotta do something that I never did though
I’m the very threshold of chaotic control
I’m contorting my body
Twisting my soul
I dance with chances—saxophone
I’m killing my past
Burning my clothes
Dance in the ash
I’m channeling ghosts
I never will die
I’m part of this world
I’m deep in her thighs
I’m making her twirl
I’m fucking the stars
Birthing his son
Calling him God ‘cause there isn’t one
The answer is, there is no answer
Everybody knows we all die from cancer
Cut out the banter
You’re no pastor
Half America is born a bastard
I can slap my own paps
But it wouldn’t knock enough sense for him to stop
Still selling rock
I’m rocking shows
Every role in my life is a life I chose
And I know I’m doing something right
With these friends and this girl
She says, “you are my puzzle piece
In this fragmented world,”
You gotta give to get some
So many talkers hardly listen
Can’t stand themselves so they keep no distance
Get all fucked up and start religions
I’m no bitch, I don’t blame the system
‘Cause I assist them
Yes, I’m a cog
Tune my clockwork, I do my job
Oil the pistons and watch it walk
Yeah, I walk all day and night
Weaving through the city light
I can’t believe, as tiny as see
This machine is keeping me alive

[Chorus]
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you

[Bridge: Buffalo Madonna]
They’ve got you
And they’ve got me
We’re cogs
We’re sheep
We’re mice

[Verse 2: P-Smoov]
This machine has me going
I cannot stop the ride
I wanna grab the controls to climb inside and drive
I hear a voice that’s calling
On the intercom:
“This is the world that’s talking
Peter, please come back home,”
I told him nothing though
I did not reply
It’s time to take this machine for a little test drive
Rest stop, pass by
Gassed up, let’s fly
Time to break the system:
Religion, taxes and sex, lies
I don’t want a little
I want to get it all
I’m tired of being lied to
So fuck ya’ll
Until I die
I will not comply
Yeah, I know inside
This machine's keeping me alive

[Chorus]
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine

[Bridge: Buffalo Madonna]
Maybe we’re moving backwards
Maybe we’ve got it wrong
Could we have overlooked the reasons why we belong?
Maybe we’re moving backwards
Maybe we’ve got it wrong
Could we have overlooked the reasons why we belong?

[Chorus]
The machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you like
You need the machine needs you