Lay It On The Line

So your cups all broke and the luck ran out
And you feel fenced in or you feel fenced out
And your heart's full of fear and your heart's full of doubt
Then lay it on the line.

We've all felt the pinch, now the pinch feels tighter
And it's time to call on the lovers and the fighters
And the puppets and players and the blue-screen writers
They got to lay it all on the line.

Take your blighted hopes and your deathly fears
Take your worthless hours and your wasted years
Your father and your mother, your sister and your brother, your husband or your wife, your money or your life
It's all going down and it's all over town, so lay it all down on the line!

You've got smoke in your eyes from the trash-can fires
But the smoke can't disguise all the sharp razor-wires
And the smoke in the air can't hide the despair in your wide-open, smoke-stung eyes.
Don't close your eyes!

Do you ever stop to wonder what we've done?
Do you ever have the feeling that the compasses are reeling
And you can't tell the right from the wrong end of a gun?

All day at work and the TV every night
With your head kept down and you're tucked up tight
What the hell are you thinking?
You're a rat on a ship and the ship is sinking!
You're hanging by a thread, you might as well be dead, that's why you took up drugs and drinking.
Will you drown like a rat
Swim like a rat
Die like a rat
Fight like a rat in a hole?
Where is your soul?
Are you gonna lay it on the line?

If you've got a hand you can lay it on the line.
If you've got a heart you can lay it on the line.
If you've got a word you can lay it on the line.
Everything you've got, God knows it's not a lot, you've got to lay it all on the line!

There's a city in flood and a city on fire, the town was bombed and it's down to the wire
Well, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker all said we'd have lots of time
But you poets and dreamers and you rock-and-roll screamers know we've got to lay it all on the line!

Lay it on the line
Lay it on the line
There ain't no reason and there ain't no rhyme
Lay it on the line
Lay it on the line
We're all out of space and we're all out of time
Lay it on the line
Lay it on the line
Stand up and be counted, you got to lay it all on the line!