Permission to Live

Lyrics

[Intro – spoken over low 808 rumble + subtle ghostly moans and distant soft voices that sound like someone is crying and laughing the same time]
They took the trees…
stacked the fruit…
bottled the rain…
drew the lines…
and called it life.
Verse 1
Once upon a time the ground was just ground,
no deeds, no titles, no man with a crown.
Trees grew where they wanted, fruit fell where it fell,
water came free from the sky and the well.
Then somebody showed up with a pen and a claim,
drew rectangles on the dirt and gave the rectangles names.
Said “this stack of apples belongs to me now,
pay me if you hungry or starve somehow.”
Took the rivers, the rainfall, the oceans, the streams,
put ‘em in plastic, slapped a barcode on the dream.
Sold it back to the same mouths that used to drink free,
while the sky still poured and they still charged a fee.
Then they looked at the land under everybody’s feet
and said “you can stand here… if your payment stays neat.
Miss a bill and the concrete gets colder,
miss another and the keys leave your shoulder.”
Chorus
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
No rent, no debt, no permission to breathe here.
They took the trees, sold the fruit in a stack,
bottled the water and sold the rain back.
Drew the lines, made the standing a plan,
now every step costs you more than a man.
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
When the earth never asked for a payment plan.
Verse 2
See the trick is they never created the dirt,
never invented the water, never planted the first.
They just claimed it, fenced it, wrote laws in the dark,
turned inheritance into a monthly charge.
You can walk the same path your grandfather walked
but only if the bank says the paperwork’s locked.
You can drink from the same spring the deer used to know
but only after the corporation gets its cut of the flow.
And if you question the price they look at you strange,
like wanting to exist without debt is deranged.
Like the idea of breathing without a receipt
is somehow more dangerous than the people who steal the heat.
They sold you the fruit of the trees they cut down,
then charged you for the shade that used to be free on the ground.
Chorus
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
No rent, no debt, no permission to breathe here.
They took the trees, sold the fruit in a stack,
bottled the water and sold the rain back.
Drew the lines, made the standing a plan,
now every step costs you more than a man.
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
When the earth never asked for a payment plan.
[Bridge – slower, more spoken, leave space for the Joker laughs]
They didn’t invent the rain.
They just put a price on it.
They didn’t invent the land.
They just drew the lines and called it theirs.
And somehow…
wanting to live without asking permission
became the radical thought.
[Final Chorus – bigger, more stacked vocals]
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
No rent, no debt, no permission to breathe here.
They took the trees, sold the fruit in a stack,
bottled the water and sold the rain back.
Drew the lines, made the standing a plan,
now every step costs you more than a man.
Why is living free such a crazy idea?
When the earth never asked for a payment plan.