Accident Waiting to Happen

A girl I knew from NYC way back used to play acoustic covers of obscure, but cool, songs from MTV’s 90's-era alternative music time block, 120 Minutes. At a really grungy bar with cheap beer. Around 10 years ago, she dedicated this Billy Brag song to me. It’s called Accident Waiting to Happen. She was so right. Here are the words. I encourage you to download the song. It rocks.


I've always been impressed with a girl
Who could sing for her supper and get breakfast as well
That's the way I am, heaven help me
He said, "We don't like peace campaigners 'round here"
As he nailed another one to the wall
And that's what gets me in trouble, heaven help me

Goodbye and good luck to all the promises you've broken
Goodbye and good luck to all the rubbish that you've spoken
Your life has lost its dignity, its beauty and its passion
You're an accident waiting to happen

There you are standing in the bar
And you're giving me grief about the DDR
And that chip on your shoulder gets bigger as you
get older
One of these nights you're gonna get caught,
and she'll give you a pregnant pause for thought
You're a dedicated swallower of fascism

Time up and time out
For all the liberties you've taken
Time up and time out for all the friends that
you've forsaken
And if you choose to waste away like death is back in fashion
You're an accident waiting to happen

My sins are so unoriginal
I have all the self-loathing of a wolf in sheep's clothing
In this carnival of carnivores,
Heaven help me