Rent Lyrics - Original Broadway Cast

How do you document real life 

When real life's getting more like fiction each day? 

Headlines, bread-lines blow my mind 

And now this deadline, eviction or pay rent 

How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong 

Though they once sounded right and rare? 

When the notes are sour 

Where is the power you once had to ignite the air? 

We're hungry and frozen, some life that we've chosen 

How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay? 

How we gonna pay? Last year's rent? 

How do you start a fire when there's nothing to burn 

And it feels like something's stuck in your flue? 

How can you generate heat when you can't feel your feet? 

And they're turning blue 

You light up a mean blaze with posters and screenplays 

How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay? 

How we gonna pay? Last year's rent? 

How do you stay on your feet when on every street? 

It's trick or treat and tonight it's trick 

Welcome back to town I should lie down 

Everything's brown and uh-oh, I feel sick 

Where is he? Getting dizzy 

How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay? 

How we gonna pay? Last year's rent? 

The music ignites the night with passionate fire 

The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit 

Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground 

And feel the heat of the future's glow 

How do you leave the past behind 

When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart? 

It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out 

'Til you're torn apart, rent 

How can you connect in an age 

Where strangers, landlords, lovers 

Your own blood cells betray? 

What binds the fabric together 

When the raging, shifting winds of change 

Keep ripping away 

Draw a line in the sand and then make a stand 

Use your camera to spar, use your guitar 

When they act tough, you call they're bluff 

We're not gonna pay, we're not gonna pay 

We're not gonna pay, last year's rent 

This year's rent, next year's rent 

Rent, rent, rent, rent, rent 

We're not gonna pay rent 

'Cause everything is rent