You were thrown into a tin can And you learned how to beg and borrow And you grew into a thin man In the land of success, sin and sorrow Now you're sleeping in a suitcase With a pill bottle for a pillow When you're hanging by a shoelace It can get to be hard to swallow When you're spinning on the subway Naked lights sent in on the river No you're never gonna leave her Though you think someday that you might forgive her Slipping into a slow dive Cold black water makes you follow Swimming into a spiral Still you're singing Shine, electric city, shine In the cool of your emptiness Around the curve of your spine Come on and shine, electric city, shine Like six thousand wings in the sky Over the scene of the crime When you come to an ending Never reaching no conclusion And you're sick of bending In us and every fresh contusion When you're lying in the soft arms Of a silent ambulance that's speeding And you're trying to tell the doctor that it's only a broken heart You don't have to be a soldier to fight But you'd better have a killer in you You don't have to be a poet to die It's the little things that kill you Everybody gets a bad break A little hit of pain and sorrow Just forget about tomorrow Keep on singing Shine, electric city, shine From the back of the cold beyond Out to the end of the line Come on and shine, electric city, shine Like the sun in a hurricane's eye Diamonds drowning in brine Come on and shine Shine Shine Shine
You were thrown into a tin can And you learned how to beg and borrow And you grew into a thin man In the land of success, sin and sorrow Now you're sleeping in a suitcase With a pill bottle for a pillow When you're hanging by a shoelace It can get to be hard to swallow When you're spinning on the subway Naked lights sent in on the river No you're never gonna leave her Though you think someday that you might forgive her Slipping into a slow dive Cold black water makes you follow Swimming into a spiral Still you're singing Shine, electric city, shine In the cool of your emptiness Around the curve of your spine Come on and shine, electric city, shine Like six thousand wings in the sky Over the scene of the crime When you come to an ending Never reaching no conclusion And you're sick of bending In us and every fresh contusion When you're lying in the soft arms Of a silent ambulance that's speeding And you're trying to tell the doctor that it's only a broken heart You don't have to be a soldier to fight But you'd better have a killer in you You don't have to be a poet to die It's the little things that kill you Everybody gets a bad break A little hit of pain and sorrow Just forget about tomorrow Keep on singing Shine, electric city, shine From the back of the cold beyond Out to the end of the line Come on and shine, electric city, shine Like the sun in a hurricane's eye Diamonds drowning in brine Come on and shine Shine Shine Shine
