From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poseur is a pejorative term, often used in the punk, heavy metal, hip hop and goth subcultures to describe a person who adopts the dress, speech, and/or mannerisms of a group or subculture, generally for attaining acceptability within the group or for popularity among various other groups, yet who is deemed to not share or understand the values or philosophy of the subculture. While this perceived inauthenticity is viewed with scorn and contempt by members of the subculture, the definition of the term and to whom it should be applied is subjective. While the term is most associated with the 1970s- and 1980s-era punk and hardcore subculture, English use of the term originates in the late 19th century.Contents- 1 Etymology and definitions
- 2 Punk subculture
- 3 Heavy metal subculture
- 4 Hip hop subculture
- 5 Other genres and subcultures
- 6 Further reading
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Etymology and definitions
The term coined from the French verb "poser" in the 1870s, to refer to people who "affect an attitude or pose"; earlier versions of the verb in Old French meant "to put or place". Etymonline, an online etymology dictionary, argues that since the "word is Eng.[English] poser in Fr.[French] garb", thus it "could itself be considered an affectation."Dictionary.com says the word refers to "a person who habitually pretends to be something he is not."The Merriam-Webster dictionary notes that the term was also used to refer to a "person who pretends to be what he or she is not" or an "insincere person"].The Encarta dictionary states that the term is used to describe a "pretentious person" or "somebody who tries to impress others by behaving in an affected way".The Cambridge Dictionary defines a "poseur" as "someone who pretends to be something they are not, or to have qualities that they do not have."Many individuals misspell the word as Poser, which by Merriam-Webster's definition is either "a puzzling or baffling question" or "a person who poses" as if for a portrait. Punk subculture
The punk subculture classifies members who are deemed to not understand or respect the subculture values as "poseurs". 1990s-2000s
Joey Keithley of D.O.A. has said "for every person sporting an anarchy symbol without understanding it there’s an older punk who thinks they’re a poseur." Heavy metal subculture
In the heavy metal subculture, the term poseur is used to refer to "someone dishonest who adopted the most rigorous pose, or identity-affirming lifestyle and opinions." In the heavy metal subculture, some critics use the term to describe bands that are seen as excessively commercial, such as MTV-friendly glam metal groups. Jeffrey Arnett argues that the heavy metal subculture classifies members two categories: "acceptance as an authentic metalhead or rejection as a fake, a poseur." In a 1993 profile of heavy metal fans' "subculture of alienation," the author notes that the scene classified some members as poseurs, that is, heavy metal performers or fans who pretended to be part of the subculture but who were deemed to lack authenticity and sincerity.Ron Quintana wrote that when Metallica was trying to find a place in the LA metal scene in the early 1980s, it was difficult for the band to "play their [heavy] music and win over a crowd in a land where poseurs ruled and anything fast and heavy was ignored."David Rocher described Damian Montgomery, frontman of Ritual Carnage, as "an authentic, no-frills, poseur-bashing, nun-devouring kind of gentleman, an enthusiastic metalhead truly in love with the lifestyle he preaches... and unquestionably practises." In 2002, Josh Wood argued that the "credibility of heavy metal" in North America is being destroyed by the genre's demotion to "horror movie soundtracks, wrestling events and, worst of all, the so-called "Mall Core" groups like Linkin Park, SlipKnot and Korn. ... true [metal] devotee’s path to metaldom is perilous and fraught with poseurs."In an article on Axl Rose, entitled "Ex–‘White-Boy Poseur'", Rose admitted that he has had "time to reflect on heavy-metal posturing" of the last few decades: "We thought we were so badass... [until] N.W.A came out rapping about this world where you walk out of your house and you get shot. ... It was just so clear what stupid little white-boy poseurs we were." Hip hop subculture
In the hip hop scene, authenticity or street cred is important. Larry Nager of The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote that rapper 50 Cent has "earned the right to use the trappings of gangsta rap — the macho posturing, the guns, the drugs, the big cars and magnums of champagne. He's not a poseur pretending to be a gangsta; he's the real thing."A This Are Music review of white rapper Rob Aston criticizes his "fake-gangsta posturing", calling him "a poseur faux-thug cross-bred with a junk punk" who glorifies "guns, bling, cars, bitches, and heroin" to the point that he seems like a parody.A 2004 on BlackAmericaWeb claims that the late Russell Tyrone Jones, better known as rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, was not "a rough dude from the ’hood" as his official record company biographies claimed. After Jones's death from drugs, the rapper's father claimed that "his late son was a hip-hop poseur, contrary to what music trade magazines published in New York" wrote. Jones' father argued that the "story about him being raised in the Fort Greene [Brooklyn] projects on welfare until he was a child of 13 was a total lie”; instead, he said "their son grew up in a reasonably stable two-parent, two-income home in Brooklyn." The article also refers to another "hip-hop poseur from a decade ago", Lichelle “Boss” Laws. While her record company promoted her as "the most gangsta of girl gangstas", posing her "with automatic weapons" and publicizing claims about prison time and an upbringing on the "hard-knock streets of Detroit", Laws' parents claim that they put her "through private school and enrolled [her] in college in suburban Detroit."As hip hop has gained a more mainstream popularity, it has spread to new audiences, including well-to-do "white hip-hop kids with gangsta aspirations—dubbed the 'Prep-School Gangsters'" by journalist Nancy Jo Sales. Sales claims that these hip hop fans "wore "Polo and Hilfiger gear trendy among East Coast hip-hop acts" and rode downtown to black neighborhoods in chauffeured limos to experience the ghetto life. Then, "to guard against being labeled poseurs, the prep schoolers started to steal the gear that their parents could readily afford." This trend was highlighted in The Offspring song "Pretty Fly for a White Guy."A 2008, Utne Reader article describes the rise of "Hipster Rap", which "consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle." The article says this "hipster rap" has been criticized by the hip hop website Unkut and rapper Mazzi, who call the mainstream rappers poseurs or "fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion."Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there "have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop...without all the scary black people." Other genres and subcultures
An on-line reviewer argues that in Norman Mailer's 1956 essay The White Negro, which "lauded a 'white hipster elite' for talking, listening, and playing like black people," Mailer "comes off like a poseur attempting to articulate this minority mimicking a minority, these white kids’ existential attempt to deal with the 'psychic havoc' of the atomic age though jazz and dope." Mark Paytress writes that in 1977, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger called singer/songwriter Patti Smith a "poseur of the worst kind, intellectual bullshit, trying to be a street girl...". The skateboarding subculture attempts to differentiate between authentic skaters and pretenders. A New York Times article on the 2007 skateboarding scene notes that "some first-time skaters drawn into the sport by catchy choruses or candy-colored sneakers are dismissed as poseurs" who are "walking around with a skateboard as an accessory, holding it in a way we call ‘the mall grab. ..."A LA City Beat magazine writer argues that "dance music had its Spinal Tap moment some time around the year 2000," arguing that "the prospect of fame, groupies, and easy money by playing other people's records on two turntables brought out the worst poseurs since hair metal ruled the Sunset Strip ... Every dork with spiky locks and a mommy-bought record bag was a self-proclaimed turntable terror."A Slate magazine article argues that the while the independent music scene "can embrace some fascinating hermetic weirdos such as Joanna Newsom or Panda Bear, it's also prone to producing fine-arts-grad poseurs such as the Decemberists and poor-little-rich-boy-or-girl singer songwriters..."The term "drugstore cowboy" denotes people whom dress up like cowboys or cowgirls but whom are not involved in associated cowboy activities such as herding cattle, putting horseshoes on horses, fixing fences and working on ranches. Further reading
- Andes, Linda. "Growing Up Punk: Meaning and Commitment Careers in a Contemporary Youth Subculture." Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World. Blackwell Publishers: Massachusetts, 1998, 213-231.
- Fox, Kathryn J. “Real Punks and Pretenders.” Constructions of Deviance. Wadsworth Publishing Co: Belmont, CA, 1992, 373-388.
- Popham, George. "Sellouts, Poseurs and Suicides: Punk Rock and the Pursuit of Secular Otherworldliness" (currently pending publication).
- Widdicombe, Sue and Rob Wooffitt. “‘Being’ versus ‘Doing’ Punk: On Achieving Authenticity as a Member.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 1990:257-277.
Celebrity impersonator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Celebrity impersonators are entertainers who look similar to celebrities and dress in such a way as to imitate them.Impersonators are known as look-alikes, impressionist, imitators and tribute artists. The interest may have originated with the need or desire to see a celebrity who has died.One of the most prominent examples of this phenomenon is the case of Elvis Presley. There are claimed to be more Elvis impersonators and tribute artists in the world than for any other celebrity.Some figures state that there are 30,000 Elvis impersonators in the world today.while others suggest there are only about 500 Elvis impersonators in the world.Edward Moss has appeared in movies and sitcoms, impersonating Michael Jackson.
Look-alike
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A look-alike is a person who closely resembles another person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty. Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or performing on television or film, playing the person they resemble. A large variety of celebrity-lookalike images can be found throughout the web, including images placed by professional agencies that offer their services.Look-alikes have also figured prominently at least since the 19th century in literature, and in the 20th and 21st centuries in film.Contents- 1 Live
- 2 Literature
- 3 Film
- 4 Video Games
- 5 See also
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Live
Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp, 1914- During the 1920s, Charlie Chaplin once went to a Charlie Chaplin-look-alike competition. Chaplin didn't even make it to the finals.
- Mikheil Gelovani, a Georgian actor and Joseph Stalin look-alike, played the Soviet leader in propaganda films of the 1930s and 1940s. In 2008, 88-year-old Felix Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler, disclosed that he had been one of four look-alikes whom Stalin had employed as decoys to mislead enemies and potential assassins (there in fact were attempts on Stalin's life — two at Yalta alone).
- In 1944, shortly before D-Day, M.E. Clifton James, who bore a close resemblance to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, was sent to Gibraltar and North Africa, in order to deceive the Germans about the location of the upcoming invasion. This story was the subject of a book and film, I Was Monty's Double.
- A notable conspiracy theory holds that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a Canadian policeman named William Shears Campbell.
- In the 1970s, actor-comedian Richard M. Dixon (born James LaRoe), look-alike to then-President Richard Nixon, gained some celebrity, portraying the president in the films, Richard (1972) and The Faking of the President (1976). He also appeared in the unreleased short film Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story.
- Jeannette Charles has, since the early 1970s, worked as a look-alike to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
- Saddam Hussein allegedly employed several look-alikes for political purposes during his Iraq reign. According to a CBS 60 Minutes segment in late January 2008, Saddam Hussein denied to an American interrogator that he had employed doubles.
- The BBC comedy programme Doubletake made extensive use of look-alikes playing their doubles in apparently embarrassing situations, seen through CCTV cameras and amateur video, using distance shots and shaky camera-work to disguise the true identity of those being filmed. Due to the nature of this programme and conditions of filming, many of the world's most authentic lookalikes boycotted the project leaving the producer to rely on the careful use of soft focus, lighting and carefully positioned camera angles to make the mainly amateur lookalikes resemble the characters they portrayed.
- Armando Ianucci's Friday Night Armistice (1996–98) featured "the bus of Dianas", a bus full of Princess Diana look-alikes which was dispatched to "care" at the sites of various minor tragedies.
- Since the year 2001, the UK's most successful lookalike has been Derek Williams ("Svenalike") as Sven-Goran Eriksson's lookalike/soundalike double who was selected by The FA as a stand in for Eriksson at VIP receptions and for Official pre-match Hospitality and has achieved widespread acclaim and the most extensive TV, film and video exposure of any celebrity double in recent history.
- Steve Sires, a look-alike of Microsoft's Bill Gates, came to attention when he attempted to trademark "Microsortof", and subsequently acted in Microsoft commercials. He became especially famous for his role in the 2002 film, Nothing So Strange, in which his character makes a speech, looks up and is assassinated.
- UK Big Brother contestant Chantelle Houghton worked briefly and unsuccessfully for a look-alike agency as a Paris Hilton look-alike, earning the nickname "Paris Travelodge". By the time Chantelle Houghton won series 4 of Celebrity Big Brother, the same agency had already signed up a professional model who made a more convincing Paris Hilton look-alike... and who was briefly also offered as a fake "Chantelle".
- UK Richard and Judy ran a competition for Little Britain Lookalikes in 2005. After the live final broadcast on Friday, 28 January 2005, on Channel Four, two winning contestants, Gavin Pomfret and Stuart Morrison, formed a Little Britain tribute act called "Littler Britain."
- Comedian Tina Fey and politician Sarah Palin have been noted to look alike. In 2008 during the final months of Palin's vice presidential campaign, Fey became widely popular for her Saturday Night Live depictions of Palin.
- Elvis Presley is said to have sent out look-alikes before he left his house to distract fans so he could walk in peace.
Literature
- In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "William Wilson" (1839), a man is followed by his double.
- Alexandre Dumas, père's, The Man in the Iron Mask (1850—the third part of Dumas' novel, The Vicomte de Bragelonne) involves King Louis XIV of France and the King's identical twin.
- In Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859), two characters, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. At the close of the novel, Carton sacrifices his life for Darnay—"a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done..."
- In The Woman in White (1859), by Wilkie Collins, the protagonist meets two women, Anne Catherick and Laura Fairlie, who strongly resemble one another. The villain of the story, Count Fosco, uses this resemblance to steal Laura Fairlie's fortune.
- In Mark Twain's first historical fiction (1882), the novel The Prince and the Pauper, Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII of England, and his pauper look-alike, Tom Canty, trade places.
- In Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), a man impersonates a king he closely resembles, after the king is abducted on the eve of his coronation.
- Bolesław Prus' historical novel Pharaoh (1895) features several cases of look-alikes. The characters include the Haranian Phut (aka the Chaldean priest Berossus) and his look-alike (chapter 20), and the protagonist Ramses and his look-alike and nemesis, Lykon. Also, chapter 33 makes reference to look-alikes of an earlier pharaoh, Ramses the Great.
- Georg Kaiser's 1917 play The Coral depicts a powerful industrialist whose male secretary is his exact double. The secretary's duties include impersonating his employer at public functions. Other employees can tell the two men apart only by the fact that the secretary always wears a coral watch-fob.
- In Robert Heinlein's novel Double Star (1956), a down-and-out actor portrays, then replaces, a powerful political figure.
- In Jack Higgins's 1975 novel The Eagle Has Landed, Nazi German paratroopers attempt to abduct British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from an English village he is visiting. It subsequently transpires that the actual Churchill had been elsewhere while a political decoy visited the village.
- In Clive Cussler's 1984 novel Deep Six, a double is used after the U.S. president is kidnapped by Korean and Soviet agents.
- Christopher Priest's novel The Prestige (1995) features two rival magicians, one of whom uses his twin brother as a double in a disappearing-and-reappearing act.
- In Neil Gaiman's novel Coraline (2002) the heroine meets up with improved look-alikes of her parents and all her neighbors when she enters the Other Mother's world Film
- Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (see "Literature," above) has been produced as three film versions between 1911 and 1958, as well as television and stage adaptations.
- Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda (see "Literature", above) has been the basis for many film and stage adaptations, the first film version being in 1913; the best-known film version is John Cromwell's 1937 film.
- Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper (see "Literature," above) has been the basis for many film and stage adaptations, the earliest film version being in 1920.
- Alexandre Dumas, père's, The Man in the Iron Mask (see "Literature," above) has been adapted into eight film versions between 1929 and 1998.
- The 1932 musical film The Phantom President depicts a man who is eminently qualified to be President of the United States but who is unlikely to be elected because he is dull and lacks charisma. Fortunately, he has an exact double: a patent-medicine salesman and vaudeville hoofer who is a charismatic campaigner but has no actual political qualifications. The film cynically suggests that most American voters would prefer the latter to the former. Both roles are played by legendary song-and-dance man George M. Cohan. Although a weak movie, The Phantom President is historically significant as the only film record of Cohan's song-and-dance performance.
- The 1940 comedy The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin's first talkie and his most commercially successful film. Chaplin plays both "Adenoid Hynkel" (a satirized Adolf Hitler) and a Jewish barber who is Hynkel's spitting image. The barber eventually replaces Hynkel, who has been arrested after having been mistaken for the barber. On nation-wide radio the barber, impersonating the dictator, declares an end to anti-semitism and a return to democracy.
- In The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler (1943), by James P. Hogan, Hitler's double (Ludwig Donath) becomes the target of an assassination.
- In The Scapegoat (1959), Alec Guinness plays both a French aristocrat and the English schoolteacher who is maneuvered into taking his place so the Frenchman can have an alibi for a murder.
- In the James Bond film Thunderball (1965), French NATO pilot François Derval is murdered by Angelo, a SPECTRE henchman who has been surgically altered to match Derval's appearance. Angelo then takes Derval's place aboard, and seizes, a NATO plane loaded with two atom bombs.
- Pharaoh (1966), directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, is adapted from Bolesław Prus' historical novel Pharaoh (see "Literature", above).
- Love and Death — 1975 Woody Allen satire on 19th-century Russian novels, set during the 1812 French invasion of Russia. A coward, Boris Grushenko (Allen), and his wife Sonja (Diane Keaton) decide to assassinate Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. A double of the Emperor is killed, and Allen's character is executed.
- In The Eagle Has Landed (1976), based on Jack Higgins's novel, German paratroopers attempt in 1943 to abduct Prime Minister Winston Churchill from an English village. It is revealed that it is actually a political decoy who visits the village and is assassinated.
- in Foul Play (1978), starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, the twin of an American archbishop kills the archbishop, impersonates him, and plots to assassinate a fictitious Pope Pius XIII.
- In Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), the warlord Takeda Shingen (1521–73) is sometimes impersonated by his brother Nobukado. Nobukado saves a thief who is to be executed, because the man bears an astonishing resemblance to Shingen. The thief becomes a kagemusha (shadow warrior) and learns the role of Daimyo Shingen, who is subsequently killed by an enemy sniper. The false identity of the kagemusha is revealed when he is unable to ride Lord Shingen's favorite horse; but in the final battle at Nagashino the kagemusha accepts his role and fights as the last man holding the banner of the Takeda clan.
- In a feature-length episode of the British sitcom, Only Fools and Horses, entitled "Miami Twice," Derek is mistaken for a Mafia don who is his spitting image, and he is used by the Mafia in an attempt to fake the don's assassination (though several tries fail). The likeness is so uncanny that even Derek's brother Rodney is tricked. Both Derek and the don are played by David Jason.
- Paul Mazursky's film Moon over Parador (1988), in which a man who is filming in a fictional country in Latin America called Parador, is forced to play the role of the country's late president, whom he closely resembles.
- Dead Ringers, a 1988 psychological horror film, features Jeremy Irons in the dual role of two identical-twin gynecologists.
- In Roberto Benigni's Johnny Stecchino (1991), the main character is passed off for a snitch hiding from the mob.
- Gary Ross' film Dave (1993), in which an impersonator is hired by the president's Chief of Staff as a temporary decoy.
- The 2002 film Bubba Ho-Tep starred Bruce Campbell in the role of an elderly Elvis Presley who had traded places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff (also played by Campbell) and now lives in a nursing home.
- "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", a 2004 BBC TV film directed by Simon Cellan-Jones from an original story by Alan Cubitt, features the sleuth, played by Rupert Everett, tracking down a killer of aristocratic young women. Holmes' suspect seems to have airtight alibis—until the detective deduces that the culprit has a confederate: an identical twin.
- The 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith features actor Wayne Pygram, who, in the film, looks remarkably like Peter Cushing. Through stock footage, the film's producers wanted Cushing to reprise his role of Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars. However, the footage was deemed unusable.
- The Prestige (2006), directed by Christopher Nolan, and adapted from the novel by Christopher Priest, in which two rival magicians employ doubles in their astonishing disappearing-reappearing acts.
- Vikramarkudu (2006), Tollywood film in which Ravi Teja plays a dual role.
- The film Goal! 3 is set during the 2006 soccer World Cup and features convincing look-alike doubles including Derek Williams for Sven-Goran Eriksson, Frank Lampard and others who blend the transition from archive footage of the tournament with the fictional action depicted.
- In Vantage Point (2008), a decoy helps protect the president from a possible assassination threat — and is shot. The film claims that "doubles have been used since Reagan."
- In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer is banned from drinking at Moe's tavern. Then a man, who appears to be Homer in a very bad disguise, enters Moe's tavern but is savagely beaten and kicked out. The real Homer then walks up to the unconscious man's body and remarks, "This man is my exact double!"
Video Games
- In Final Fantasy VIII, SeeD mercenaries and Forest Owls resistance fighters devise a complicated plan to kidnap the president of Galbadia Vinzer Deling, which includes switching the presidential train wagon from its tracks and replacing it with a mockup. Deling foresees the plan and sends a shapeshifter monster to take his place, who attacks the game protagonists. The monster is ultimately killed, but the plan's failure forces the Forest Owls into hiding.
- In Metal Gear Solid, former drill instructor and advisor to the game's protagonist Solid Snake McDonnell Benedict Miller, better known by his nickname Master Miller is murdered before the game main events and replaced by main antagonist Liquid Snake in disguise. Liquid, as Master Miller, tricks Solid Snake into unknowingly do his bidding. The plot is discovered by Colonel Roy Campbell and his staff, who track Miller's communications and find out they are coming from Shadow Moses Island after the real Master Miller's corpse is found dead in his cabin.
External links
See also
- Assassinations in fiction
- Body double
- Doppelgänger
- Impersonation
- Mimic
- Political decoy
- Shadowman
- Simulacrum
- Stand-in
Fake Definition:
- [noun] something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
Synonyms: sham, postiche - [noun] a person who makes deceitful pretenses
Synonyms: imposter, impostor, pretender, fraud, sham, shammer, pseudo, pseud, role player - [noun] (football) a deceptive move made by a football player
Synonyms: juke - [verb] make a copy of with the intent to deceive; "he faked the signature"; "they counterfeited dollar bills"; "She forged a Green Card"
Synonyms: forge, counterfeit - [verb] fake or falsify; "Fudge the figures"; "cook the books"; "falsify the data"
Synonyms: fudge, manipulate, falsify, cook, wangle, misrepresent - [verb] talk through one's hat; "The politician was not well prepared for the debate and faked it"
Synonyms: bullshit, bull - [adjective] fraudulent; having a misleading appearance
Synonyms: bogus, phony, phoney, bastard - [adjective] not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article; "it isn't fake anything; it's real synthetic fur"; "faux pearls"; "false teeth"; "decorated with imitation palm leaves"; "a purse of simulated alligator hide"
Synonyms: false, faux, imitation, simulated
Related Words:
- juggle
- fake book
- name dropper
- ringer
From http://www.elook.org/dictionary/fake.html
These Days
Bon Jovi
I was walking around, just a face in the crowdTrying to keep myself out of the rainSaw a vagabond king wear a styrofoam crownWondered if I might end up the sameThere's a man out on the corner, singing old songs about change
Everybody got their cross to bare, these days
She came looking for some shelter with a suitcase full of dreams
To a motel room on the boulevard
I guess she's trying to be James Dean
She's seen all the disciples and all the wannabe'sNo one wants to be themselves these days
Still there's nothing to hold on to but these days
These days - the stars seem out of reach
These days - there ain't a ladder on these streets
These days - are fast, nothing last in this graceless age
There ain't nobody left but us these days
Jimmy shoes busted both his legs, trying to learn to fly
From a second story window, he just jumped and closed his eyes
His mamma said he was crazy - he said mamma "I've got to try"
Don't you know that all my heroes died
And I guess I'd rather die than fade away
These days - the stars seem out of reach
But these days - there ain't a ladder on the streets
These days - are fast, nothing last in this graceless age
Even innocence has caught the midnight train
And there ain't nobody left but us these days
I know Rome's still burning
Though the times have changed
This world keeps turning round and round and round and round
These days
These days - the stars seem out of reach
But these days - there ain't a ladder on the streets
These days - are fast, love don't last in this graceless age
Even innocence has caught the midnight train
These days - the stars seem out of reach
But these days - there ain't a ladder on the streets
These days - are fast, nothing last
There ain't no time to waste
There ain't nobody left to take the blame
There ain't nobody left but us these days
Ain't nobody left but us these days
