i'll sing you a song that starts out descriptive   and locates a time and a place   like a dinner table where a whole family   is just sitting down to say grace   an old old song that moves into action   taking its sweet sweet time   and waits until we all say amen   again and again in rhyme      it's the story of a father and a mother   who battle each other over nothin'   with a couple of kids trying to figure   which way the plot's spinning   who's winning and who is bluffing      it's a story as common as a penny, son   it ain't really worth anything to anyone      poor little sore little song   that aches like a muscle each time that it moves   sad little song that you play   and you play and you play   and you play 'til you lose   while history is outside writing a recipe book   for every earthly pain   this song is inside finger painting dark swirls   again and again and they all look the same      cuz what if you come home from school one day   and you find your whole family's at war   and there's this ominous silence just waiting to be broken   and there's secret places for hiding underneath the floorboards   and everyone seems to be bracing   for the subharmonic thunder of the next bomb   and everyone seems to be waiting for the cops to bust in   with their guns drawn   at the bleak light of dawn      it's a story as common as a penny, son   i don't think it's worth anything to anyone