Lyrics

It's a fine line 'tween making ends meet and sleeping in the rain
Broke down and wishing you were back on that 8am train
Seems like the screw keeps tightening every single day
The Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

Well, they'll sell you a dream, loan you the money for a house
And it don't matter if you can't make the payments when all the jobs head South
See, they bet on both sides, so they win either way
That's how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

We just hang around drinking coffee from a paper cup
They say it'll trickle down, but it just keeps tricklin' up
And the first hit's free, but after that you gotta pay
That's how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

Well, they say there's a crisis, every TV's talking about
How the same folks who got us into this need us to bail them out
Guess when you're too big to fail, it means you're too big to pay
Ain't it clever how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

Big men got big plans, big plans only expand
They got no friends, only interests, little men are pawns in their hands
And they send them to fight for reasons that aren't what they say
Poor boys don't you know, the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

We just hang around drinking coffee from a paper cup
They say it'll trickle down, but it just keeps tricklin' up
Everybody gets a cut, and the newsmen just look the other way
While the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

They been writing up laws for as long as they been stealing the land
Make it so convoluted that ordinary folks can't understand
And it's a grim reminder every year on Columbus Day
Of just how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away

We just hang around drinking coffee from a paper cup
They say it'll trickle down, but it just keeps tricklin' up
It's just bottom lines and lines on the map, people affected get no say
That's how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away
That's how the Lord giveth and the landlord taketh away