Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues

by Todd Snider

{refrain}

Hey, hey, my, my

Rock and roll will never die

Hang your hair down in your eye

You'll make a million dollars

/ G C D7 G / :

Well we were in this band going nowhere fast

We sent out demos but everybody passed

So one day we finally took the plunge

Moved out to seattle to play some grunge

Washington state that is

Space Needle, Eddie Vedder, Mudhoney

Now to fit in fast we wear flannel shirts

We turn our amps up until it hurts

We've got bad attitudes and what's more

When we play we stare straight down at the floor

Oooooooeeeeeeeeoooooooo

Ain't seen nothing like that on television in like... an hour

Now to fit in on the Seattle scene

You've gotta do something they ain't never seen

So thinking up a gimmick one day

We decided to be the only band that wouldn't play a note

Under any circumstances

We called it Silence, music's original alternative... roots grunge

Well we spread the word through the underground

That we were the hottest new thing in town

The record guy came out to see us one day

And just like always we didn't play

It knocked him out

He said he loved our work

He said he loved our work but he wasn't sure if he could sell a record with no music on it

I said shit, you've been doing that all year

{refrain}

Well they made us do a video but that wasn't tough

Since we just filmed ourselves smashing stuff

It was kinda weird because there was no music

But MTV said they would love to use it

The kids went wild, the kids went nuts

Rolling Stone gave us five stars, said we played with guts

We're scoring chicks, taking drugs, they asked us to play MTV Unplugged, you should have seen it

We went right out there and refused to do acoustic versions of the electric songs we'd refused to record in the first place

Then we smashed our shit

Well we blew them away at the Grammy show

By refusing to play and refusing to go

And then just when we thought fame would last forever

Along come this band that wasn't even together

Now that's alternative

That's alternative to alternative

They're called Guns 'N' Roses

Sing if you know it!

{refrain}

Well our band got dropped and that ain't funny

Because we're hooked on grass but we're outta money

So the other day I called up the band

I said "Boys, I've taken all I can

"Shave off your goatees, pack the van

"We're going up to Boulder to follow the Yonder Mountain String Band"

{refrain}