Song to Woody WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN I’m out here a thousand miles from my home Walkin’ a road other men have gone down I’m seein’ your world of people and things Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song ’Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born Hey, Woody Guthrie, but I know that you know All the things that I’m a-sayin’ an’ a-many times more I’m a-singin’ you the song, but I can’t sing enough ’Cause there’s not many men that done the things that you’ve done Here’s to Cisco an’ Sonny an’ Leadbelly too An’ to all the good people that traveled with you Here’s to the hearts and the hands of the men That come with the dust and are gone with the wind I’m a-leavin’ tomorrow, but I could leave today Somewhere down the road someday The very last thing that I’d want to do Is to say I’ve been hittin’ some hard travelin’ too

B) The nature of Liberation – Mokṣa (31–35) Now the thirty-first [śloka]: Audio 2 – 0:02 स्वतन्त्रात्मातिरिक्तस्तु तुच्छोऽतुच्छोऽपि कश्चन। न मोक्षो नाम तन्नास्य पृथङ्नामापि गृह्यते॥३१॥ svatantrātmātiriktastu tuccho’tuccho’pi kaścana / na mokṣo nāma tannāsya pṛthaṅnāmāpi gṛhyate //31// Now, he explains in this śloka, the thirty-first śloka, what is really liberation (mokṣa). Mokṣa, he explains, mokṣa is only svatantrātma, when your being becomes absolutely independent from all sides. That is mokṣa, that is liberation, then you are liberated. Without that absolute independence, whatever is existing in this world, if it is tuccha or if it is atuccha, if it is empty (worthless) or if it is worthy, . . . JOHN: Valuable. SWAMIJI: . . . whatever it is, that is not mokṣa. So, there is nothing separately explained as mokṣa except svatantrātma. The thirty-second [śloka]: Audio 2 – 01:23 यत्तु ज्ञेयसतत्त्वस्य पूर्णपूर्णप्रथात्मकम्। तदुत्तरोत्तरं ज्ञानं तत्तत्संसारशान्तिदम्॥३२॥ yattu jñeyasatattvasya pūrṇapūrṇaprathātmakam / taduttarottaraṁ jñānaṁ tattatsaṁsāraśāntidam //32// The essence that we have to perceive [of that which is] worth perceiving, that essence [of that] which is to be perceived (that is, Lord Śiva), and that perception, as long as it becomes full by-and-by, in succession, as much as it is full, you are near mokṣa. If it is not full, if it is incomplete, you are away from mokṣa. So, that [incomplete] fullness is differentiated fullness. For some masters of some other schools, they consider that full, but in other systems it is not, it is incomplete. So that complete fullness lies only in Shaivism, although they77 are liberated from that saṁsāra of their own (tattat saṁsāra śāntidam78). Now he explains the same in the thirty-third śloka: Audio 2 – 03:01  रागाद्यकलुषोऽस्म्यन्तःशून्योऽहं कर्तृतोज्झितः। इत्थं समासव्यासाभ्यां ज्ञानं मुञ्चति तावतः॥३३॥ rāgādyakaluṣo’smyantaḥśūnyo’haṁ kartṛtojjhitaḥ / itthaṁ samāsavyāsābhyāṁ jñānaṁ muñcati tāvataḥ //33// [not recited] Some masters of [other] schools say that, “rāgādi akuluṣo asmi,” the reality of the Self is [realized] when you are absolutely away from the bondage of rāga (attachment), kāma (desire), krodha (wrath), etcetera (rāgādi akaluṣo asmi). SCHOLAR: Free of kleśāvaraṇa–the Yogācāras.79 SWAMIJI: Yes, it is for Yogācāras. Another school of thought explains that the reality of the Self is just to become deprived or away from all substances. When you are an absolute void, [when] you become an absolute void, you are free. Absolute voidness is freedom. SCHOLAR: Śūnya svabhāvako’ham. SWAMIJI: Yes, śūnya svabhāvako’ham. JOHN: Which school is this? SCHOLAR: Mādhyamikā.80 SWAMIJI: Mādhyamikā. And another school explains that the reality of the Self is when the Self becomes absolutely away from kartṛ bhāva (action). JOHN: This would be Sāṁkhya? SWAMIJI: It is Sāṁkhya.81 SCHOLAR: And Patañjali yoga. SWAMIJI: Patañjali yoga also.82 So this way (itthaṁ), samāsavyāsābhyāṁ jñānaṁ, this knowledge, this perception, relieves them from that bondage of their own, collectively83 or separately.84 Some become aware and that jñāna (knowledge) removes the bondage of those people collectively, . . . SCHOLAR: Up to that point. SWAMIJI: Up to that point.85 . . . and to some, one-by-one (vyāsābhyām). SCHOLAR: What does that mean? SWAMIJI: That means, some people are freed from māyīyamala, some people are freed from kārmamala, and some are freed from all these malas. Those who are freed from all these malas, it is samāsena.86 SCHOLAR: But none of these three are freed completely. SWAMIJI: They are not freed completely. SCHOLAR: So, how can he say “samāsa” in that sense? SWAMIJI: From their point of view, [it is] samāsa [totality]. JOHN: And, at the same time, is it possible to be liberated from, say, māyīyamala and not from kārmamala? SWAMIJI: If there is māyīyamala, there is kārmamala also. SCHOLAR: Ārāṅkurakāraṇam.87 SWAMIJI: Yes. JOHN: So, it goes in . . . it’s successive. SWAMIJI: Successive, yes, these two malas. Āṇavamala is the most subtle mala. SCHOLAR: So, vyāsa88 would be just from āṇavamala. SWAMIJI: Āṇavamala. SCHOLAR: Just from that. SWAMIJI: Yes. SCHOLAR: Or from māyīyadmalad aṁśāṁśikāya.89 SWAMIJI: Aṁśāṁśikāya. SCHOLAR: That would be vyāsa. SWAMIJI: Yes. The thirty-fourth [śloka]: Audio 2 – 06:21 तस्मान्मुक्तोऽप्यवच्छेदादवच्छेदान्तरस्थितेः। अमुक्त एव मुक्तस्तु सर्वावच्छेदवर्जितः॥३४॥ tasmānmukto’pyavacchedādavacchedāntarasthiteḥ / amukta eva muktastu sarvāvacchedavarjitaḥ //34//  [not recited] Tasmāt mukto’pyavacchedāt. So, although he is liberated from these bondages, but another class of bondages appears to him on his way, on his path. So, from that point of view, he is not liberated at all. The really liberated person is that person who is liberated from these malas from all sides. So, next, the thirty-fifth śloka: Audio 2 – 07:07 यत्तु ज्ञेयसतत्त्वस्य ज्ञानं सर्वात्मनोज्झितम्। अवच्छेदैर्न तत्कुत्राप्यज्ञानं सत्यमुक्तिदम्॥३५॥ yattu jñeyasatattvasya jñānaṁ sarvātmanojjhitam / avacchedairna tatkutrāpyajñānaṁ satyamuktidam //35// [not recited] The perception of that worthy-[to-be]-known object, Śiva (jñeyasatattvasya), that perception, when it is sarvātmanā ujjhitam avaccheda, when it is absolutely away, absolutely away from all bondages, that kind of perception is nowhere [non]-perception [of the undifferentiated Self], nowhere ignorance, and it gives you the real liberation (satya muktidam), and that is the Shaivite liberation.

There's a monster in the closet Something's under my bed I worry every evening That I might just wake up dead They say I'm being silly I should think nice thoughts instead But when the light's just right These things just pop into my head All of these years and it's still the same I had to grow up, but it's still the same I had to let go, it's still the same

"Off Ramp Road Tramp" Oh, yeah, don't you know? Well, I just can't decide, yes Whether I should walk away Or baby, take the ride, yes She looks good in her Morgan Ah, she pulls up alongside me With ring-like curls and homemade clothes And head all stuffed with pride, babe Oh yeah, she's the only one who knows Why insane people sometimes look suspicious Baby,

"Wooden Woman" Wooden woman by the gate Wonders if she is too late She tries so hard to make her date But a young man's love she will never receive Wooden woman by the wall Sadly she will then recall Of when she was so young, so small And she knew so much love, it was hard to believe She was so much in love, as she drank up their lies As she saw with both ea

"Black Butter, Past" I remember nights alone When streetlights' glow would fill the room Figures beat a native drum And played a song foretelling to Sing a song, try not to utter Words at night that say Black butter, ooh Look around the room you're in And pick out something you really need Take it in your hands and touch it If you strike it, will it bleed? A

"Black Butter, Present" Take a mirror from any room Hold it up until you see another person Standing When you see him, try to talk to him He will not answer Just cries the world, then just cries the whole world Oh, yes But you don't know where No, you don't know where, no Thrust it up, then down again Smash it! Oh, do it again Break it! Oh yeah Then destroy

"Black Butter, Future" Step outside, walk down the street And if there's something in your shoe Take it out and look it over Don't be surprised if it talks to you And if it dies, you'll hear the cries And know the meaning of black butter

"You Gotta Move"

You got to move
You got to move
You got to move, child
You got to move
Oh, when the Lord get ready
You got to move

You may be high
You may be low
You may be rich, child
You may be poor
But when the Lord get ready
You got to move

You see that woman
Who walks the street
You see that police
Upon his beat
But then the Lord get ready
You got to move

You got to move

"Jig-Saw Puzzle"

There's a tramp sittin' on my doorstep
Tryin' to waste his time
With his methylated sandwich
He's a walking clothesline
And here comes the bishop's daughter
On the other side
And she looks a trifle jealous
She's been an outcast all her life

Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the gangster looks so fright'ning
With his Luger in his hand
But when he gets home to his children
He's a family man
But when it comes to the nitty-gritty
He can shove in his knife
Yes he really looks quite religious
He's been an outlaw all his life

Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Yes, yes now
Oh, all right

Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh the singer, he looks angry
At being thrown to the lions
And the bass player, he looks nervous
About the girls outside
And the drummer, he's so shattered
Trying to keep up time
And the guitar players look damaged
They've been outcasts all their lives

Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

Oh, there's twenty-thousand grandmas
Wave their hankies in the air
All burning up their pensions
And shouting, "It's not fair!"
There's a regiment of soldiers
Standing looking on
And the queen is bravely shouting,
"What the hell is going on?"

With a blood-curdling "tally-ho"
She charged into the ranks
And blessed all those grandmas who
With their dying breaths screamed, "Thanks!"

Me, I'm just waiting so patiently
With my woman on the floor
We're just trying to do this jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore

"You Better Move On"
(originally by Arthur Alexander)

You ask me to give up the hand of the girl I love
You tell me I'm not the man she's worthy of
But who are you to tell her who to love?
That's up to her, yes, and the Lord above
You better move on

Well I know you can buy her fancy clothes and diamond rings
But I believe she's happy with me without those things
Still you beg me to set her free
But my friend, that will never be
You better move on

Now I don't blame you for loving her
But can't you understand, man, she's my girl
And I I'm never never ever gonna let her go
'Cause I, yeah, I love her so

Well, I think you better go now, I'm getting mighty mad
You ask me to give up the only love I've ever had
Maybe I would, oh, but I love her so
I'm never gonna let her go
You better move on (you better move on)
Yeah, you better move on (you better move on)
Yeah, you better move on (you better move on)
Yeah, you better move on (you better move on)

"Talkin' About You"

Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
I met her walking down an uptown street
She's so fine I wish she was mine
I get shook up every time we meet

Talkin' 'bout you (nobody but you, baby)
Nobody but you (yes you all the time)
I do mean you (yeah my baby)

Just trying to get a message to you

Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
Help me know she looks so good
Lovely skin, well she's soaked in gin
She oughta be somewhere in Hollywood

Talkin' 'bout you (I'm talkin' 'bout my baby)
Nobody but you (yes she's alright)
I do mean you (yeah my baby)

Just trying to get a message to you

Talkin' 'bout you (nobody but you baby)
Nobody but you (yes you all the time)
I do mean you (yeah yeah)

Just trying to get a message to you

Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know
Sitting right here by my side
Lovely indeed that why I ask if she
Promise someday she will be my bride

Talkin' 'bout you (yeah talk)
Nobody but you (yes my my baby)
I do mean you (yeah yeah)

I'm just trying to get a message through

Talkin' 'bout my baby too much
I'm talkin' 'bout my baby
Yeah yeah yeah
Talkin' 'bout my baby

"One More Try"

You need some money in a hurry
But things ain't right
You try to beg and borrow maybe start a fight
Your friends don't wanna know you they just pass you by
So they couldn't be your friends because they wouldn't lie

Sit down shut up don't dare to cry
Things will get better if you really try
So don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try
Don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try

You got a girl that doesn't bring you all she cries
The day turns into night to try to satisfy
You bring her all the things she want she don't improve
You think you'd give her up if you could make that move

So, sit down shut up don't dare to cry
Things will get better if you really try
So don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try
Don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try try

The things that don't matter easy come and go
And the things that satisfy only come real slow
You gotta know and watch it all in your mind
'Cause it's better when you get it if you really try

So, sit down shut up don't dare to cry
Things will get better if you really try
So don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try
Don't you panic don't you panic
Give it one more try

Keep on trying
Keep on trying
Keep on trying
Keep on trying
Keep on trying
You gotta keep trying

Hi. The quality of my speaking voice is it’s the product of two things that I’m not sorry for. One is that I went to—I was lucky enough to go to a Knicks game last night, screamed for 100 percent of it, and then I got home, and I was like, “You gotta stop screaming, you’re screaming too much, you’re screaming instead of talking, you’re too excited,” and I was like, “Okay, I’m not gonna scream tonight,” and then I got to witness the amazing performances that I saw tonight, and then I just kept screaming; I just never stopped screaming, and so this is what you get, and again, I make no apologies for that. I’ve had a blast.

Tonight has been amazing. I want to begin by thanking the person who introduced and inducted me tonight. He thinks that this is the first time he has inducted me into something, but what he may not be taking into consideration is that through his decades of spellbinding storytelling, Steven Spielberg has unknowingly inducted me and countless others into his sacred club of expansive world-building. From the time he was a kid, every time he dreamed something up, he wanted to do anything humanly possible to be able to show it to you. I watched his films pivot between different genres, action to sci-fi, to historical epic to drama, to comedy, romance, fantasy, to musical, and I watched him ace every single genre, and that kind of limitless creativity isn’t just inspiring to burgeoning filmmakers. Because of examples like Steven’s, I trusted my imagination, regardless of if it was taking me somewhere new and uncharted, and then every time I dreamed something up, I wanted to do everything humanly possible to be able to play it for you.

A few months ago, when the Songwriters Hall of Fame asked me about my heroes and the creatives who shaped my storytelling and who I might want to present this award to me, I said Steven’s name. And about an hour later, to my absolute delight, I ended up on the phone with him and his legendarily effervescent wife, Kate Capshaw, who is here tonight. And he was telling me that yes, absolutely, he would be thrilled to be here. I was completely blown away, because I mean, the man has a massive film called Disclosure Day that’s coming out at midnight tonight, and he’s still gonna agree to show up and do this for me a few hours before it comes out. Wouldn’t that be impossibly hard to balance? Wouldn’t that be too difficult scheduling-wise? I’m trying to give him an out, at which point Kate said something I’ll never forget. She said, “Good and true things are easy.”

And if I look back at my entire 23-year career in music—the ups and downs, the industry battles, the trials and tribulations, the tears and the cheers, and the dogpiling of doubt, the criticisms—both fair and unfair—the complete loss of privacy, the world tours, and the ego wars, and the twists of fate, the absolute magical chaos of this path that I chose when I was too young to remember it ever being a choice at all, songwriting was the easiest thing I ever did. Not because it didn’t take effort; it definitely did. Not that it wasn’t frustrating at times, because it could be, and not that my songwriting didn’t haunt me relentlessly until I cracked the perfect internal rhyme scheme for the third line, the second verse, to the point where my teachers called me out in class for not paying attention, because that definitely happened.

But when I say that songwriting was the easiest part for me, I think what I mean is that it was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it. I had to be taught how to entertain a crowd and learn choreography and be less annoying and navigate the industry and fiercely protect my own sanity. I had to learn all of that over time through difficult lessons and massive amounts of trial and error and chaos and calamity. But songwriting for me was pretty much the only thing I ever just naturally did.

My parents tell me stories about driving home from taking me to see Disney movies in the theaters and noticing I was singing the songs on the way home from the film in the car, but I was changing the lyrics and the melodies to be about my own life. As a little kid, I loved to sing; I loved to do children’s theater performances. But everything came together when I learned to play guitar at 12. I wrote my first song after learning my first three chords.

It felt easy to work incredibly hard at this. It felt easy to nurture something I loved so much, to watch calluses form on the tips of my tiny fingers, and to become a constant observer of the human condition, because people’s feelings, passions, and motivations have always fascinated me, and it was easy to choose songwriting over everything else in my life, but it couldn’t have been easy for my parents and my brother—[Swift gets emotional] I’m good—to just pick up and move our entire family from Pennsylvania to relocate to Nashville, so that I could hone my craft in the songwriting capital of the world. But after it became obvious that this was not even remotely a temporary phase their tween daughter was going through, they uprooted their entire lives to move me to Music City, and even though words are supposed to kind of be my thing, I will never be able to express my gratitude to you guys for doing that for me. You’re the reason I’m here tonight.

In Nashville, I took meetings and I played acoustic shows until I was able to secure a publishing deal. I got signed when I was 14. Oh, thanks [for the applause]. And I got the chance to work with incredibly wise and experienced co-writers, people like Liz Rose, Troy Burgess, Hillary Lindsey, Robert Ellis Orrall, Angelo [Petraglia], the Warren brothers, and the late but so very loved Brett James. So I’d written over 100 songs on my own at that point. But this would be my first experience co-writing.

My parents had raised me to be overprepared, show up early, never assume the world owes you anything. And I might have been 14 years old, but I didn’t want anyone in a professional setting to treat me like a baby, or for these songwriters to think that I expected them to write songs for me to slap my name on, so at this point I started to approach songwriting like a full-time vocation.

And that didn’t mean just showing up to my appointments and hoping that the ideas would show up, too. It meant spending nearly all of my free time writing ideas in preparation for my writing sessions, and then stopping myself at a certain point to allow my co-writers to later weigh in, so some of these ideas were 50 percent done, some were 75 percent done, some were just a hook with lyrics and a melody or a chorus.

I stockpiled them, so that when I went into a writing session with a co-writer, I’d play them and sing them a few of these ideas, sort of like it was a pitch session, and whichever idea they liked the best was the one that we would finish together.

I kept long lists of words that I loved, and I added to it every time I thought of a new one. I developed a serious fixation on alliterations and juxtaposition, and I wrote poems when I didn’t have the right melody yet.

When I was inspired by my own life, my curiosities about the world, or my very dramatic but extremely dire crushes on the boys at school who had never even once talked to me, I wrote about that. And if I wasn’t inspired by my own life, I’d use other methods to spark my imagination. I figured if the idea doesn’t come to you, you have to become your own search party and go find it. Oftentimes, I’d put a movie on, I’d pause a scene and try to write a song from each character’s perspective—even the villain, I’d explore what they were going through, and try to say it in a vernacular that that character might use.

And this is how I learned that every person has a self-constructed justification system that they live by, and we each get to decide what choices we’re willing to condone in ourselves. We each decide what we see as good and true, fair and right. And so with my metaphorical Mary Poppins bag of hooks, choruses, and bridges, and my non-metaphorical backpack from sophomore year of high school, I’d walk into my writing sessions on Music Row. And one of my favorite stories from this time in my life was when I got a chance to write with one of my favorite songwriters of all time, Craig Wiseman.

Craig is an absolute savant of a writer, but he’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, too, so I know that I can tell this story. I brought in about five different semi-form[ed] songs that I thought were really strong. Because it was Craig Wiseman, I led my pitch with a song I really thought was special. It was pretty much done, except for a few lines in the bridge. So filled with nervous anticipation, I played it on guitar and sang it for him, and when I finished, he very kindly told me that he thought it was good, but he didn’t really get it, and he’d love to hear the other ideas I brought.

A few songs later, we landed on one that resonated better with him, and we had a fantastic writing session. It turns out you really can and should meet some of your heroes. But years back—or years later, we still look back on that session, and we laugh about that first idea that I played for him. I had ended up going home and finishing the song on my own later that night. It was called “Love Story.” Finishing that song that night was me trusting my instincts as a writer regardless of any feedback or information I had about what other people’s take on it might be.

I think now more than ever in an industry that seems to be consumed by metrics, data analytics, and we’re all trying to predict whether something will trend or not, writers need to trust their human intuition. And I think the thousands of hours I’ve spent loving the working of this craft have taught me to really be able to identify the ideas that jump out at me and sparkle and linger—the ones that matter to me the most.

I have to say thank you to Sombr for that perfect performance [during the ceremony of my music]. And his writing is so exceptional that it makes me actually envious, and I love that feeling. He’s going to be the top of my Spotify Wrapped this year, guaranteed; it’s locked, it’s in the bag.

And a lot of my late-night debates with my friends about the state of the music industry involve me saying very loudly, “Sombr is the future, and he does it all on his own, and he doesn’t need AI. The kids are fine.” And so obviously Shane [Sombr’s real name] is a very well-adjusted person, an artist, and doesn’t need any of my advice at all.

There are so many incredible writers who I love who have come into their own recently, and if I had advice for young artists, though, who should perhaps be interested in it, I would say that you really have to prioritize what you love down to your very core, because you’ll need that if your song ever gets heard by the public or the critics or the haters posing as critics, or the people chronically online, or the robots posing as people who are chronically online.

Songwriters have a real balancing act that they have to conduct every day, because inherently we’re supposed to let it all in, feel deeply and be sensitive to the point of your delusion, and then reflect those feelings and delusions back to the world in the form of a three-and-a-half-minute sonic landscape or a bop or a folktale, or a battle cry, or a 10-minute coming-of-age song about a star. So it’s hard to harden yourself to certain brutal elements of this world.

But allow me to now make a hard pivot and pull out a quote I love from the show Yellowstone when a father says to his son, “It’s the one constant in life, son: You build something worth having, somebody’s gonna try to take it.”

So, John Dutton was talking about a ranch, but I’m using this quote to refer to your self-worth, your peace of mind, and your singular vision as a creator. Positive feedback and people loving what you wrote feels incredible, and I hope you get lots of it, but you need to be ready to receive negative feedback, whether you seek it out or not.

It’s no longer a shock that this is how things work, but somehow it feels like I have this conversation with a young writer every other week. If you make anything awesome, someone out there is bound to say horrible things about it or twist what you meant into something completely unrecognizable to you. What I hope you discover is this: You can be sensitive but also durable, and you can accept that feedback and skepticism and criticism are inevitable. You can take what’s useful or constructive from that information and leave out what’s simply damaging to your creativity.

No one does or should make art that appeals to everyone, everywhere, all the time. My favorite art is detailed and singular in its voice, therefore it can’t be digested and metabolized by everyone who experiences it in the same way. I’m very frequently told by people how they feel about my music, that they never really got my music until they got their heart broken or started driving their daughter to school every day, or until I made an alternative album in the pandemic called Folklore, or that they only like the hits, or that they only like the ones that weren’t hits, or that they don’t like any of it at all, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable for me to get feedback of all sorts because I know where I stand regarding the work I’ve made.

As writers, we can only hope to meet people where they are in their lives, but you can’t ever orchestrate or force the encounter. You just have to hope that in some exquisite happenstance you bump into them on the same path at the same time, that somehow amidst the noise of life, a line we wrote or a melody that we crafted cuts through and they hear and feel something—that they get chills or feel lighter or think of someone they love. Our goal is to elicit that glint of recognition in another human being, because something that felt good and true to us feels good and true to them at the same time, and in that moment when someone blurts out, “I love this song,” it was easy.

Before I go, there’s so many people who helped me get to this podium, who vouched for my writing and cared about my perspective before anyone cared about my name, and then the fans came along and they wanted to hear my stories, my prose, my hooks, my heartache. And nothing, nothing delights and surprises me more than the fact that 20 years after my first song came out, they still want to read the next chapter.

Nothing makes me happier than when someone tells me that they used to listen to my music with their parent, and now decades later, they listen to it with their own child—[Swift gets emotional again] I’m good—or that they listen to it with their best friend, or when a couple tells me that “Love Story” is their song, or somebody does like a cute little dance to “Fate of Ophelia,” or I hear people in different countries singing “Opalite” in their own accents, or someone tells me that the song “Enchanted” gets their baby to stop crying. I’m humbled by the ways that fans have immortalized my songs in their own individual ways, allowing them to be the underscore of some of their real-life expeditions on this earth—the magnificent moments as important to me as the seemingly mundane.

Lastly, I know that when it comes to legacy, there are so many songwriters who have had such remarkable careers before me, and I know that the Songwriters Hall of Fame could have chosen any of these deserving and brilliant writers to receive this honor this year, but you chose to include me in this group of exemplary songwriters to be inducted into the Hall of Fame class of 2026 tonight. So I want to thank the voters for celebrating and honoring the best and truest parts of my life. I will be forever grateful. Have a good night, guys. Thank you.

Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to NYU‘s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bill Berkeley and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU’s President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees Susan Hockfield and Felix Matos Rodriguez, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I’m…90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ‘22’. And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University’s Class of 2022.

Not a single one of us here today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we could do it when there was absolutely no proof of that. Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you, as you asked a bazillion questions like ‘how does the moon work’ and ‘why can we eat salad but not grass.’ And maybe they didn’t do it perfectly. No one ever can. Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, and in that case I hope you’ll remember them today. If they are here in this stadium, I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination.

I know that words are supposed to be my ‘thing’, but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and my dad, and my brother, Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day so that I could go from singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words would ever be enough. To all the incredible parents, family members, mentors, teachers, allies, friends and loved ones here today who have supported these students in their pursuit of educational enrichment, let me say to you now: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.

I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor. Not the type of doctor you would want around in the case of an emergency, unless your specific emergency was that you desperately needed to hear a song with a catchy hook and an intensely cathartic bridge section. Or if your emergency was that you needed a person who can name over 50 breeds of cats in one minute.

I never got to have the normal college experience, per se. I went to public high school until tenth grade and finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road on a radio tour, which sounds incredibly glamorous but in reality it consisted of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother daughter fights with each other during boarding so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest.

As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I’d hang on the wall of my freshmen dorm. I even set the ending of my music video for my song “Love Story” at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys all experienced at some point in the last 4 years, right?

But I really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you because you went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms or having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores, but on top of that you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests. I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted too. But in this case you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it. Today you leave New York University and then you go out into the world searching for what’s next. And so will I.

So as a rule, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I’ll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation, to impart whatever wisdom I might have and tell you the things that helped me in my life so far. Please bear in mind that I, in no way, feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today and so, you know what you’re doing. You’ll do things differently than I did them and for different reasons.

So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship.

The first of which is…life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.

Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term ‘cringe’ might someday be deemed ‘cringe.’

I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.

And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say that I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of ‘unbothered ambivalence.’ This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to ‘want it.’ That people who don’t try hard are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know because I have been a lot of things but I’ve never been an expert on ‘chic.’ But I’m the one who’s up here so you have to listen to me when I say this: Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.

I started writing songs when I was twelve and since then, it’s been the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing, whether it’s directing videos or a short film, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft, the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end. Editing. Waking up in the middle of the night and throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a newer, better one. A plot device that ties the whole thing together. There’s a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down.

As a songwriter I’ve never been able to sit still, or stay in one creative place for too long. I’ve made and released 11 albums and in the process, I’ve switched genres from country to pop to alternative to folk. This might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion but in a way, I really do think we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating. It’s just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things, all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be, and when. Who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go. I have some good news: It’s totally up to you. I also have some terrifying news: It’s totally up to you.

I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asks me for it, and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, the media, interviewers, executives. This advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager in the public eye at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day ‘running off the rails.’ That meant a different thing to everyone person said it me. So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life.

This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life.

And being embarrassed when you mess up is part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it? That’s a gift.

The times I was told no or wasn’t included, wasn’t chosen, didn’t win, didn’t make the cut…looking back, it really feels like those moments were as important, if not more crucial, than the moments I was told ‘yes.’

Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35-year-old housewives listen to country music and there was no place for a 13-year-old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then I’d post my songs on my MySpace and yes, MySpace, and would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn’t have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, oftentimes critical, pieces about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.

I know I sound like a consummate optimist, but I’m really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes everything just feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism. And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. And so this may be hard for you to hear: In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.

I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.

Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make leads to the next choice which leads to the next, and I know it’s hard to know sometimes which path to take. There will be times in life when you need to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing is to back down and apologize. Times when the right thing is to fight, times when the right thing is to turn and run. Times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is to listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won’t.


How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t.

Scary news is: You’re on your own now.

Cool news is: You’re on your own now.

I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about on the internet. Anyway…hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.

As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I’m a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.

I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re…

… the class of ’22.

"A Little More Like You"

Think of something you can't touch
I see angels start to blush when they look at you
When I went to my guitar to write this song I fell apart
'Cause I'm counting every second like time in a jar
And these words are just words, that's not what you are

Would you rather me say what I really mean?
I love you but it won't get through if I try too hard
Honestly, what I really mean
Is I want to be a little more like you

Drag a pen across a page
Take a look at what you made- you made me, me
Turn around and watch me live
Learn again that to forgive is to believe
And to thank is to bless
I'm drawing the curtain, 'cause now I've been blessed

Would you rather me say what I really mean?
I love you but it won't get through if I try too hard
Honestly, what I really mean
Is I want to be a little more like you
Yeah, I want to be a little more like you

There seems to be something I can't see
That keeps you from falling apart
It's safe to say you're far away
And anybody else, oh anybody else

Would you rather me say what I really mean?
I love you but it won't get through if I try too hard
Honestly, what I really mean
Is I want to be a little more like you
Yeah, I want to be a little more like you, like you
Yeah, I want to be a little more like you

"Kid In The Crowd"
(unreleased)

Little girl, she looks around
She's standing in the open ground
Looks up at the girl alone
Singing through the microphone
Girl gives girl a little smile
And just one wink that could have run a mile
But life is full of empty days
But the little girl said, "I'm gonna be like that someday"

I remember the eyes
Of the kid in the crowd who cut me down to size
And realizing is crying out loud
For every kid on stage, there is a kid in the crowd

Girl on stage holds her hand
Backed up by a country band
Looking down with eyes of grace
Looked upon that young girl's face
And when she smiled at that 8 year old
Endless thoughts that can never be told
Wiped away those empty days
And the little girl said, "I'm gonna be like that someday"

I remember the eyes
Of the kid in the crowd who cut me down to size
And realizing is crying out loud
For every kid on stage, there is a kid in the crowd

Answered why's are like moonlit skies
And loving eyes are like fireflies
One of these, they really can be
But that little girl, that little girl was me

I remember the time
I was a kid in the crowd
With a dream in my eyes
Realizing is crying out loud
There was a kid on stage, I was a kid in the crowd

I'm still the kid in the crowd

“All is good. Don't worry, the pain will help you. You'll get into some trouble, but it will work out in the end.”
― James Franco

“I was a black center in the middle of all the nature. I was nothing, but I could do anything.”
― James Franco

“Always have one artistic thing that is pure, at least one thing, where you don’t compromise. You can do other things to make money, but have one pure area.”
― James Franco, Actors Anonymous: A Novel

“I always see nice images like that but I don't know what to do with them. I guess you share them with someone. Or you write them down in a poem. I had so many of those little images, but I never shared them or wrote any of them down.”
― James Franco

“She was working the desk in the student exhibition hall, reading Kafka. She had a cool demeanor, but it was more like she couldn’t get her words out so easily, so she covered everything with an icy smile.”
― James Franco, Actors Anonymous: A Novel

“Sometimes my mother is annoying and I get bratty in return, but I still love her so much. I just don’t want to become her.”
― James Franco, Actors Anonymous: A Novel

“There is a fake version of me
And he's the one that writes
These poems.
He has an attitude and swagger

That I don't have.
But on this page, this fake me
Is the me that speaks.
And this fake me is louder

Than the real me, and he
Is the one that everyone knows.
He's become the real me
Because everyone treats me

Like I'm the fake me.”
― James Franco, Directing Herbert White: Poems

“There was a moon and it was on the water. A miniature moon rocking on the little waves. I always see nice images like that but I don't know what to do with them. I guess you share them with someone. Or you write them down in a poem. I had so many of those little images, but I never shared them or wrote any of them down.”
― James Franco

“The next American president and I could not be more different…But American democracy is bigger than any one person.” —@POTUS

I am pleased to announce that the Great State of Michigan has been approved to be given $32.1 Million Dollars in its Disaster Declaration Request, for Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding. I have so informed Governor Gretchen Whitmer of this approval. She was very grateful. The people of Michigan are in good hands with “Trump Endorsed” Mike Rogers, who is running for U.S. Senate, John James for Governor, and Congressmen Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar, Bill Huizenga, Tim Walberg, Tom Barrett, and Lisa McClain. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

I just spoke with Congressman Tom Tiffany (who has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor!), and informed him that the Great State of Wisconsin has been approved to be given $22.6 Million Dollars in its Disaster Declaration Request, for Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding. The wonderful people of Wisconsin are in good hands with Tom, alongside Senator Ron Johnson, and “Trump Endorsed” Congressmen Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, and Tony Wied. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Its So Hard

You gotta live
You gotta love
You gotta be somebody
You gotta shove
But it's so hard, it's really hard
Sometimes I feel like going down
You gotta eat
You gotta drink
You gotta feel something
You gotta worry
But it's so hard, it's really hard
Sometimes I feel like going down
But when it's good
It's really good
And when I hold you in my arms, baby
Sometimes I feel like going down
You gotta run
You gotta hide
You gotta keep your woman satisfied
But it's so hard, it's really hard
Sometimes I feel like going down

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Billie Jean



[1st Verse]
She Was More Like A Beauty Queen From A Movie Scene
I Said Don't Mind, But What Do You Mean I Am The One
Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round
She Said I Am The One Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round



[2nd Verse]
She Told Me Her Name Was Billie Jean, As She Caused A Scene
Then Every Head Turned With Eyes That Dreamed Of Being The One
Who Will Dance On The Floor In The Round

[Bridge]
People Always Told Me Be Careful Of What You Do
And Don't Go Around Breaking Young Girls' Hearts
And Mother Always Told Me Be Careful Of Who You Love
And Be Careful Of What You Do 'Cause The Lie Becomes The Truth


[Chorus]
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
She's Just A Girl Who Claims That I Am The One
But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son

[3rd Verse]
For Forty Days And Forty Nights
The Law Was On Her Side
But Who Can Stand When She's In Demand
Her Schemes And Plans
'Cause We Danced On The Floor In The Round
So Take My Strong Advice, Just Remember To Always Think Twice
(Do Think Twice)



[4th Verse]
She Told My Baby We'd Danced 'Till Three
Then She Looked At Me
Then Showed A Photo My Baby Cried
His Eyes Looked Like Mine
Go On Dance On The Floor In The Round, Baby



[Bridge]
People Always Told Me Be Careful Of What You Do
And Don't Go Around Breaking Young Girls' Hearts
She Came And Stood Right By Me
Then The Smell Of Sweet Perfume
This Happened Much Too Soon
She Called Me To Her Room



[Chorus]
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
She's Just A Girl Who Claims That I Am The One
But The Kid Is Not My Son
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
She's Just A Girl Who Claims That I Am The One
But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
She's Just A Girl Who Claims That I Am The One
But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, She Says He Is My Son
She Says I Am The One
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
Billie Jean Is Not My Lover

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'


[Chorus]
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)

[1st Verse]
I Took My Baby To The Doctor
With A Fever, But Nothing He Found
By The Time This Hit The Street
They Said She Had A Breakdown
Someone's Always Tryin' To Start My Baby Cryin'
Talkin', Squealin', Lyin'
Sayin' You Just Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'




[Chorus]
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)

[2nd Verse]
You Love To Pretend That You're Good
When You're Always Up To No Good
You Really Can't Make Him Hate Her
So Your Tongue Became A Razor
Someone's Always Tryin' To Keep My Baby Cryin'
Treacherous, Cunnin', Declinin'
You Got My Baby Cryin'


[Chorus]
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
You're A Vegetable, You're A Vegetable
Still They Hate You, You're A Vegetable
You're Just A Buffet, You're A Vegetable
They Eat Off Of You, You're A Vegetable

[3rd Verse]
Billie Jean Is Always Talkin'
When Nobody Else Is Talkin'
Tellin' Lies And Rubbin' Shoulders
So They Called Her Mouth A Motor
Someone's Always Tryin' To Start My Baby Cryin'
Talkin', Squealin', Spyin'
Sayin' You Just Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'


[Chorus]
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
You're A Vegetable, You're A Vegetable
Still They Hate You, You're A Vegetable
You're Just A Buffet, You're A Vegetable
They Eat Off Of You, You're A Vegetable

[Ad-Lib]
If You Cant Feed Your Baby (Yeah, Yeah)
Then Don't Have A Baby (Yeah, Yeah)
And Don't Think Maybe (Yeah, Yeah)
If You Can't Feed Your Baby (Yeah, Yeah)
You'll Be Always Tryin'
To Stop That Child From Cryin'
Hustlin', Stealin', Lyin'
Now Baby's Slowly Dyin'

[Chorus]
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
I Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
You Got To Be Startin' Somethin'
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It's Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You're Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)

[Ad-Lib]
Lift Your Head Up High
And Scream Out To The World
I Know I Am Someone
And Let The Truth Unfurl
No One Can Hurt You Now
Because You Know What's True
Yes, I Believe In Me
So You Believe In You
Help Me Sing It, Ma Ma Se,
Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Coo Sa
Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa,
Ma Ma Coo Sa
[Repeat/Fade-Out]

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once." — Julius Caesar

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long
Anytime she's goes away
Wonder this time where she's gone
Wonder if she's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away
And I know, I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
I know, I know
Hey, I ought to leave young thing alone
But ain't no sunshine when she's gone, whoa-whoa
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Only darkness every day
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away
Anytime she goes away
Anytime she goes away
Anytime she goes away

[Intro: 2Pac & Michael Buffer]
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me
Got the police bustin' at me
But they can't do nothin' to a G
Let's get ready to rumble
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah (Now, you know how we do it, like a G)
You don't wanna fuck with me (What really go on in the mind of a nigga)
Got the police bustin' at me (That get down for theirs)
But they can't do nothin' to a G (Constantly, let 'em screaming that, money over bitches)
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah (Not bitches over money)
You don't wanna fuck with me (Stay on your grind, nigga)
Got the police bustin' at me (My ambitions as a ridah)
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
Police bustin' at me (My ambitions as a ridah)
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
Got the police bustin' at me (I'm a straight ridah)

[Verse 1]
So many battlefield scars while driven in plush cars (Skrrt)
This life as a rap star is nothin' without guard
Was born rough and rugged, addressin' the mass public (Hahaha)
My attitude was "fuck it," 'cause motherfuckers love it
To be a soldier, must maintain composure at ease (Sir, sir, sir, sir)
Though life is complicated, only what you make it to be
(And, uh) And my ambitions as a ridah
To catch her while she hot and horny, go up inside her (Uh, got ya)
Then I spit some game in her ear, "Go to the telly, ho"
Equipped with money in a Benz 'cause, bitch, I'm barely broke (Hahaha)
I'm smokin' bomb-ass weed, feelin' crucial
From player to player, the game's tight, the feeling's mutual
From hustlin' and prayers to breakin' motherfuckers to pay us
I got no time for these bitches (Hell no), 'cause these hoes tried to play us
I'm on a meal ticket mission, want a mil' so I'm wishin'
Competition got me ripped on that bullshit they stressin' (Booyah)
I'ma rhyme though, clown hoes like it's mandatory
No guts, no glory, my nigga, bitch got the game distorted
Now it's on and it's on because I said so (Haha)
Can't trust a bitch in the business so I got with Death Row
Now these money-hungry bitches gettin' suspicious
Started plottin' and plannin' on a scheme to come and trick us (Haha)
But thug niggas be on point and game tight (Yeah)
Me, Syke and Bogart are strapped up the same night (Wassup, nigga?)
Got problems, then handle it, motherfuckers see me
These niggas is jealous, 'cause deep in they hearts they wanna be me
(Uh yeah, haha) And now you got me right beside ya
Hopin' you listen, I catch you payin' attention
To my ambitions as a ridah
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[Chorus]
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me (My ambitions as a ridah)
Got the police bustin' at me
But they can't do nothin' to a G (I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah)

[Verse 2]
It was my only wish to rise above these jealous
Coward motherfuckers I despise, when it's time to ride
I was the first to hop inside (Let's go, nigga, let's go), give me the .9 (Haha, yeah)
I'm ready to die right here tonight and motherfuck they life (Yeah, nigga)
That's what they screamin' as they drill me, but I'm hard to kill
So I open fire until you kill me, witness my steel (That's all you niggas got? Hahahahahahahaha)
Spittin' at adversaries, envious and after me
I'd rather die before they capture me, watch me bleed
Mama (Dear Mama), come rescue me, I'm suicidal, thinkin' thoughts
I'm innocent so there'll be bullets flyin' when I'm caught (Fuck, shoot)
Fuck doin' jail time, better day, sacrifice (Fuck this shit)
Won't get a chance to do me like they did my nigga Tyson (Fuck that)
Thuggin' for life, and if you right, then, nigga, die for it
Let them other bustas try, at least you tried for it (Hahaha)
When it's time to die, then be a man and pick the way you leave (Yeah, nigga)
Fuck peace and the police, my ambitions as a ridah

[Chorus]
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me (My ambitions as a ridah)
Got the police bustin' at me
But they can't do nothin' to a G
[Verse 3]
My murderous lyrics, equipped with spirits of the thugs before me
Stay off the block, evade the cops 'cause I know they comin' for me
I been hesitant to reappear, been away for years (I'm back, baby)
Now I'm back, my adversaries been reduced to tears
Question my methods to switch up speeds, sure as some bitches bleed
Niggas'll feel the fire of my mother's corrupted seed
(Buck-buck-buck-buck-buck) Blast me but they didn't finish, didn't diminish
My powers, so now I'm back to be a motherfuckin' menace (Them niggas cowards)
They cowards, that's why they tried to set me up
Had bitch-ass niggas (Bitch-ass niggas) on my team so indeed they wet me up (Punk niggas)
But I'm back reincarnated ('Carnated), incarcerated
At the time I contemplate the way that God made it
Lace 'em with lyrics that's legendary, musical mercenary
For money, I'll have these motherfuckers buried
I been gettin' much mail in jail, niggas tellin' me to kill it (Hahaha)
Knowin', when I get out, they gon' feel it (Yeah, right)
Witness the realest, a who-ridah when I put the shit inside
The cries from all your people when they find her, must remind ya
(Thug life) My history'll prove I been it
Revenge on them niggas that played me and all the cowards that was down with it
Now it's your nigga right beside ya
Hopin' you listen, got you payin' attention to my ambitions as a ridah

[Chorus]
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me (My ambitions as a ridah)
Got the police bustin' at me
But they can't do nothin' to a G (G)
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me
Got the police bustin' at me
But they can't do nothin' to a G (And I'm just proving it)
I won't deny it, I'm a straight ridah
You don't wanna fuck with me

I was always workin' steady but I never called it art
I got my shit together meeting Christ and reading Marx
It failed my little fire but it spread a dying spark
Go tell the young Messiah what happens to the heart
There's a mist of summer kisses where I tried to double park
The rivalry was viscious, the women were in charge
It was nothing, it was business, but it left an ugly mark
I've come here to revisit what happens to the heart
I was selling holy trinkets, I was dressing kind of sharp
I let pussy in the kitchen and a panther in the yard
In the prison of the gifted I was friendly with the guards
So I never had to witness what happens to the heart
I shoulda seen it coming, after all I knew the chart
Just to look at her was trouble, it was trouble from the start
Sure we played a stunning couple, but I never liked the part
It ain't pretty, it ain't subtle, what happens to the heart
Now the angel's got a fiddle, the devil's got a harp
Every soul is like a minnow, every mind is like a shark
May have broken every window, but the house
The house is dark, I care but very little
What happens to the heart
Then I studied with this beggar, he was filthy, he was scarred
By the claws of many women he had failed to disregard
No fable here, no lesson, so singing meadowlark
Just a filthy beggar guessing what happens to the heart
I was always workin' steady, but I never called it art
It was just some old convention like the horse before the cart
I had no trouble betting on the flood against the Ark
You see, I knew about the ending, what happens to the heart
I was handy with a rifle, my father's 303
I fought for something final, not the right to disagree

[Verse 1]
Time is on my side, yes, it is
Time is on my side, yes, it is
Now, you always say
That you want to be free
But you'll come running back (I said you would, baby)
You'll come running back (Like I told you so many times before)
You'll come running back to me

[Verse 2]
Oh, time is on my side, yes, it is
Time is on my side, yes, it is
You're searching for good times
But just wait and see
You'll come running back (I said you would, darling)
You'll come running back (Spend the rest of my life with you, baby)
You'll come running back to me

[Bridge]
Go ahead, baby, go ahead
Go ahead and light up the town
And, baby, do everything your heart desires
Remember, I'll always be around
And I know, I know
Like I told you so many times before
You're gonna come back
Yeah, you're gonna come back, baby
Because I know
You're gonna come back knocking
Yeah, knocking right on my door
Yes, yes!
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[Verse 3]
Time is on my side, yes, it is
Time is on my side, yes, it is
'Cause I got the real love, the kind that you need
You'll come running back (I knew you would one day)
You'll come running back (I told you before)
You'll come running back to me

[Outro]
Yes, time, time, time is on my side, yes, it is
Time, time, time is on my side, yes, it is
Baby, time, time, time is on my side

"Dancers come and go in. a twinkling of an eye, but the dance lives on." - MIchael Jackson

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." - John Lennon

I'm trying to help all of humanity become literate of consciousness postures.