Should you roll the dice?

Well some people, they claim they never had a fair roll of the dice,
They could be right,
That’s not me,
See I was lucky and I had everything just fall in my plate,
Call it fate if you want to,
But for all the elaborate set up and manoeuvre
Of being wheeled into position to deliver
Some saccharine punch to the guts of a world
Screaming out for whatever the hell they think it is that I’ve got

Every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time opportunity knocked on my door,
I just sent it on straight down to hell,
‘Cause every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
I fell

Well some people, they imagine the disappointment must tear me apart,
And break my heart,
And presume that I’m disgusted by all the injustice I’ve seen,
But that’s not me,
And I tell you that I bear no resentment to millionaire pop singers,
Barely literate poets and guitar store gunslingers,
And I smile so politely at the well-meaning ignorance
Of people who tell me I’m going to make it someday

Every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time I was given a chance just to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time opportunity knocked on my door,
I just sent it on straight down to hell,
‘Cause every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
I fell

Well the sun’s going down on what’s left of today,
And the tide drags what’s left of this moment away,
And I kick through the dirt and the red autumn leaves,
And what I have and what I lost and what I still believe,
And I have no regrets for the time that I spent
Barely paying my dues and barely paying the rent,
For a simple pursuit of more honest a life,
I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t cheat on my wife

Now the fire’s burning out and the wall’s closing in,
And I’m dragged by the gravity into the sin
Of obedient service of some twisted machine,
Blowing smoke in the faces of each little scene,
Sent to form a distraction just to buy up some time,
Misdirected by swagger and beaten by rhyme,
Telling tales of a life you might one day attain
If you just keep your focus relentlessly trained
On the things you can get and not who you can be,
Nor the innocent dream of the sky and the sea,
And the word and the truth and the spirit of man,
And a history that promises one day we can,
With a love for your brother and your sister and yourself,
Get there one day together in good cheer and good health

But it comes it a cost, it has a price that you pay,
For a sweet bowl tomorrow you’ve got to give up today,
It’s a sacrifice way beyond mortals like me,
For an age that never was and never could ever be,
So I don’t dwell on the past, I don’t rue my mistakes,
And I’m proud that I never had whatever it takes,
And I’m stood on the deck of this leaky old boat
With just a shirt on my back and a song in my throat,
And I’m the luckiest boy on the face of the earth
‘Cause I know about love and I know what it’s worth,
And I’m not giving up, and I’m not giving in,
Though I know it’s a fight that I’m not gonna win,
I still scream in the faces of more powerful men:
“I choose this, mother****er, and I choose it again!”

Every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time I was given a chance just to stand on my own two feet,
Oh I fell, yeah,
And every time opportunity knocked on my door,
Well I just sent it on straight down to hell,
‘Cause every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Yeah and every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
Yeah and every time I was given a chance to stand on my own two feet,
I fell…