Well some people they claim

They never had a fair roll of the dice

They could be right

But that's not me, see I was lucky

And just had everything fall in my plate

Call it fate if you want to

But for all the elaborate setup and maneuver

Being wheeled into position to deliver some saccharine

Punch to the guts of a world screaming out

For whatever the hell they think it is that I've got

Every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time opportunity knocks on my door

I just send it on straight down to hell

'cause every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet I fell

Well some people they imagine

The disappointment must tear me apart

Break my heart

And presume I'm disgusted

By all the injustice I've seen

But that's not me and I tell you

I bear no resentment to millionaire pop singers

Barely literate poets and guitar stock gunslingers

And I smile so politely

At the well-meaning ignorance

Of the people who tell me I'm gonna make it someday

Every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time opportunity knocks on my door

I just send it on straight down to hell

'Cause every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet I fell

Well the sun's going down on what's left of today

And the tide drags what's left of this moment away

And so I kick through the dirt and the red autumn leaves

What I had and what I lost and what I still believe

And I have no regrets for the time that I spent

Barely paying my dues and barely paying the rent

For a simple pursuit of more honest a life

Yah I don't cheat on my taxes, I don't cheat on my wife

Now the fire's burning out and the walls closing in

And I'm dragged by the gravity into the sin

Of obedient service of some twisted machine

Blowing smoke in our faces of each little scene

Set to form a distraction just to buy up some time

Misdirected by swagger and beaten by rhyme

Telling tales of a life you might one day attain

If you just keep your focus relentlessly trained

On the things you can get and not who you can be

No the innocent dream of the sky and the sea

And the word and the truth and the spirit of man

And a history that promises one day we can

With a love for your brother and your sister and yourself

Get there one day together in good cheer and good health

But it comes at a cost, yah there's a price that you pay

For a sweet bowl tomorrow you gotta give up today

It's a sacrifice way beyond mortals like me

For an age that never was and never could ever be

So I don't dwell on the past, I don't rue my mistakes

And I'm proud that I never had whatever it takes

Now I'm stood on the deck of this leaky old boat

With just a shirt on my back and a song in my throat

And I'm the luckiest boy on the face of the earth

'Cause I know about love and I know what it's worth

So I'm not giving up, and I'm not giving in

Though I know it's a fight that I'm not gonna win

And I still scream in the face of more powerful men:

I choose this, motherfucker, and I choose it again!

'Cause every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And Every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And Every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh I fell, yah

And every time opportunity knocks on my door

I just send it on straight down to hell

'Cause every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet

Yah every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet

Oh, every time I was given a chance

To stand on my own two feet I fell