rock & roll will always let you down

think you're rebellious, you think you'll go the distance
conservatives in leather jackets, studded with indifference
steel yourselves with irony but you fail to see the joke's on you

hang on to the sixties like some talisman of youth
music & rebellion, a version of the truth
& so you buy the box set dvd, a package so immersive
but nothing you pay money for can ever be subversive

the stones reduced to sad performing clowns
as dylan wears victoria's secret gown
elvis lies divested of his crown
yeah, rock & roll will always let you down

everbody's trying to fake that authenticity
just peacocks in a proud display of off-the-peg identity
romanticism written large, now everybody is in charge

& I keep on seeing all these banners get unfurled
seems like every generation thinks it's going to change the world
until they find themselves co-opted & with all their bridges burned
the lessons of post-modernism are still yet to be learned

the pantomime the pistols have become
as they search their arseholes looking for the sun
punk was born then just gave up & drowned
yeah, rock & roll will always let you down

'cos everybody's stealing everything
& I've ripped off this tune that I now sing
& so the lawyers trail their drool all over town
yeah rock & roll will always let you down