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The Decline is an eighteen-minute punk rock epic that still hits a little too close to home 23 years later.
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View Reddit by ngtstkr – View Source
[ad_1]
The Decline is an eighteen-minute punk rock epic that still hits a little too close to home 23 years later.
[ad_2]
View Reddit by ngtstkr – View Source
**LYRICS**
Where are all the stupid people from?
And how’d they get to be so dumb?
Bred on purple mountain range
Feed amber waves of grains
To lesser human beings, zero feelings
Blame it on
Human nature, mans destiny (mans destiny)
Blame it on the greediocracy (greediocracy)
Fear of god
The fear of change
The fear of truth
Add the bill of rights, subtract the wrongs (there’s no answers)
Memorize and sing star spangled songs
(When the questions) Aren’t ever asked
Is anybody learning from the past?
We’re living in united stagnation
Father, what have I done?
I took that 22, a gift to me from you
To bed with me each night
Kept it clean, polished it well l
Cherished every cartridge, every shell
Down by the creek, under brush, under dirt
There’s a carcass of my second kill
Down by the park, under stone, under pine
There’s a carcass of my brother William
Brother, where have you gone to?
I swear, I never thought I could
I see so many times, they told me to shoot straight
Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze
That will insure a kill
A kill is what you want
A kill is why we breed
The Christians love their guns
The church and N.R.A.
Pray for their salvation
Prey on the lower faiths
The story book’s been read
And every line believed
Curriculum’s been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized
Jerry spent some time in Michigan
A twenty year vacation, after all he had a dime
A dime is worth a lot more in Detroit
A dime in California, a twenty dollar fine
Jerry only stayed a couple months
It’s hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the ass
Asphyxiation is simple and fast
It beats seventeen fun years of being someones bitch
Don’t think (stay)
Drink your wine (home)
Watch the fire burn (be)
His problem’s not mine (safe)
Just be that model citizen
I wish I had a shilling
(For each senseless killing) For every senseless killing
I’d buy a government
America’s for sale
And you can get a good deal on it (a good deal on it)
And make a healthy profit
Or maybe tear it apart
Start with assumption
That a million people are smart
Smarter than one
Serotonin’s gone
She gave up, drifted away
Sara fled, thought process gone
She left her answering machine on
The greeting left spoken sincere
Messages no one will ever hear
Ten thousand messages a day
A million more transmissions lay
Victims of the laissez faire
Ten thousand voices, a hundred guns
A hundred decibels turns to one
One bullet, one empty head
Now with serotonin gone (gone)
The man who used to speak
Performs a cute routine
Feel a little patronized
Don’t feel bad, they found a way inside your head
And you feel a bit misled
It’s not that they don’t care, yeah
The television’s put a thought inside your head
Llike a Barry Manilow jingle
I’d like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
A symphonic blank stare, yeah
It doesn’t make you care (make you care)
Not designed to make you care (make you care)
They’re betting you won’t care (you won’t)
Place a wager on your greed
A wager on your pride
Why try to beat them when a million others tried?
We are the whore
Intellectually spayed
We are the queer
Dysfunctionally raised
One more pill to kill the pain
One more pill to kill the pain
One more pill to kill the pain
Living through conformity
One more prayer to keep me safe
One more prayer to keep us warm
One more prayer to keep us safe
There’s gonna be a better place
Lost the battle, lost the war
Lost the things worth living for
Lost the will to win the fight
One more pill to kill the pain
Na-na-na-na-na
La-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na
The going get tough, the tough get debt
Don’t pay attention, pay the rent
Next of kins pay for your sins
A little faith should keep us safe
Save us
The human, existence
Is failing, resistance
Essential, the future
Written off, the odds are
Astronomically against us
Only moron and genius
Would fight a losing battle
Against the super ego
When giving in is so damn comforting
And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth but prefer lies
Lies are simple, simple is bliss
Why go against tradition when we can
Admit defeat, live in decline
Be the victim of our own design
The status quo, built on suspect
Why would anyone stick out their neck?
Fellow members
Club “We’ve got ours”
I’d like to introduce you to our host
He’s got his and I’ve got mine
Meet the decline
We are the queer
We are the whore
Ammunition
In the class war
We are worker
We love our queen
We sacrifice
We’re soilent green
We are the queer
We are the whore
Ammunition
In the class war
A NOfx masterpiece !
Such an amazing song
[Live video @ Red Rocks is awesome](https://youtu.be/oWhy8PCuGsk?t=56)
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They stopped playing it at shows by the time I got to see them live for the first time. Lost my mind when they ended their set with it. Don’t listen to much punk these day but when I do, it is The Decline. Wish it was more well known.
I wish I had a schilling
For every senseless killing
I’d buy a government
America’s for sale
And you can get a good deal on it
And make a healthy profit
Or maybe, tear it apart
Start with assumption
That a million people are smart
Smarter than one
I love the version at red rocks with the orchestra
If only someone picked up the torch this left behind and ran with the whole prog-punk thing.
I saw them play this many many years ago on the tour where they would be playing this song again and Fat Mike fell off the stage, threw his guitar and was taken off the stage by his bandmates. Good times.
such an awesome song
The best for sure, I have had the pleasure and luck of hearing it live a few times in the past. Epic!
Ah yes, the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida of my generation.
I’ve loved this song since it came out. Still listen to it on occasion. It does hit hard. Even harder then when it debuted.
It’s one of my go to internet jukebox songs. You really get you money’s worth.
War on Errorism shows how nothing has changed since Bush. All the same bullshit.
I learned all of the words to this song and would sing them while working my first job stocking shelves at Publix. 23 years later, I still know every word. It’s fantastic and epic is definitely the right word.
NoFx is one of my favorite punk groups, if you think this album is uncanny you guys should look up “just the flu”. It was originally released on their album “Ribbed” in 91…
I can never not listen to this masterpiece. I get the chills every time.
Masterpiece
I still remember the CD as being one of the coolest looking ones I’d ever seen.
God I’m fucking old.
Lyrics from The Idiots Have Taken Over are even more on point
Punk in Drublic still better
Their Magnum Opus.
I have the picture disc cd & it’s worn out (like the soles of my party boots).
They closed with The Decline when I saw them around ‘06.
Amazing.
One of my most treasured vinyls. Love this song.
I love NOFX. I’ve been listening to them for around three decades and got to see them once way back when. One of my oldest friends got to see them when they played a local VFW. Yeah, that was a really long time ago. I like that they make social commentary and have some songs that are so damn clever and funny it makes you wish you had those thoughts. As I get older what I have a hard time listening to when their songwriting is nothing more than a laundry list of problems that society is facing. I think it’s a common problem in society now, where people are fast to talk about what is wrong, what sucks and what is so awful in society, but are slow to talk about solutions. We all need to start talking about real, plausible solutions to the problems we face.
I heard they suck Live!!
I always liked their song “Idiots are taking over” a little better for playlists but this one is such a great song
I remember one of the times that I saw them was not too long after this came out and they were headlining a Warped Tour. They came on stage to an absolutely massive crowd and started playing the Decline. Several points in the song they switched to a different song, played it, then right back into the decline. Just interwoven to make it an even longer epic song. They accomplished this with almost no talking and with that absolute NOFX tightness within the band, no stray notes, just unbelievably tight transitions. That will always be a memory of one of my favorite live performances of all time. I think it ended up being a solid 45 mins of punk rock.
My coworker just mentioned this to me a couple days ago and I forgot to look it up, so glad it was posted here!
The Christians love their guns
The church and NRA
Pray for their salvation
Prey on the lower faith
The storybook’s been read
And every line believed
Curriculum’s been set
Logic is a threat
Reason searched and seized.
THIS SONG IS 25 YEARS OLD
AND FUCKING
NOTHING
HAS IMPROVED.
Hmm, after 20 years I thought, *”hey let’s try to listen to NOFX again, maybe this time I can find something to like about it”*. Nope, I guess it’s just not my thing. I’ll try again in another 20 lol
Way before its time. Love NOFX
my youth…my angst…before I bought into the system to live a better life
And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth, but prefer lies..
God, I love NoFX so much. Watching [that backyard concert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98MtFw90t_A) they did a couple years ago was so amazing to see them having fun all those years later.
I wrote a report about this song in high school hahaha
Top 5 favorite songs all time. Epic masterpiece.
I listen to it every US election
NOFX is one of those bands that are so easy to love and hate at the same time. But I like that they never really changed their sound, and for the most part have stayed true to their roots. They aren’t my favorite punk band, but I do enjoy them.
Fish in a Gun Barrel is a pretty new/relevant song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRROL3_W5rg
Father, what have I done? I took that .22, a gift to me from you, to bed with me each night. Kept it clean. Polished it well. Cherished every cartridge, every shell.
Highly recommend the NOFX autobiography book “The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories”. Its honestly one of the best books ive ever read, they all had such crazy lives within that band.
How the fuck does this post get by the mods, let alone upvoted to hell? I mean, I fucking love NOFX, and this song, and would normally be happy 5o support more people being exposed to this. But talk about a blatant violation of rule 0 and 1. I swear if anything I post has the tiniest tinge of breaking a rule it’s shut down immediately.
Don’t call me white
“Jerry only stayed a couple months.
It’s hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the ass.
Asphyxiation is simple and fast.
It beats seventeen fun years of being someones bitch…”
Pure. Lyrical. Poetry.
Greatest punk song ever. Fight me.
FYI this “one song” is on every updated/connected juke box and has been for a while, do your due diligence next time you’re in a small town bar.