Lyrics to
Let Them Run Your Lives

This version of Let Them Run Your Lives was released by John Cougar Mellencamp in 1978.

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Hello girls and boys
As you sit in your carpeted bedrooms
With your stereos on and on
Playin’ with those hundred dollar toys
Built to occupy your minds
So you don’t notice your future’s are gone
And as you race on through the streets tonight
Lookin’ for some lonely lover to hold you tight
You think that the world is alright
Well you’re out of touch, you’re out of time
You’re gonna crack, your fragile regulated minds
As you’re headin’ on to no kind of conclusion

Go on, let ’em run your lives
Watch ’em as they cut your throat
With they’re parental carving knife
Go on, let ’em run your lives
Are you too young to see
Or just to old to fight

They’ve taken the energy away from you
They haven’t taught you enough to deal
With the ordeal you must be goin’ through
Yeah but look at this now
They’ve left you the schools
They’ve left you the government
But they’re all fallin’ down
Don’t forget to make the past due payments
And in this world of uncertainties
You can be certain that
You must kiss the ass of the authoritites
And kiss you will if you want to survive
You don’t have to look too hard to see
That there just ain’t no free rides
Hell it takes a real man to survive

Well Jay Dee is locked in his soul some kinda hotel
Well he’s burnin inside he shakes shakes shakes
All through the night
And little Ruda Juda is passed out on the floor
She’s just so damn stupid won’t somebody
Take away her gun and show her the door
Show her the door, show her that door’s open
And me I’m so misunderstood, but I’m still alive
And my eyes are open wide to the fact
That the world just will lie
And it’ll kick you right in the face

Hey are you too young to see
Or just too old to fight
Do we have to fight the rest of our lives

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John Cougar Mellencamp has released many songs over the years besides Let Them Run Your Lives. John Cougar Mellencamp released songs from 1976 to 2007 spanning across albums like Chestnut Street Incident, A Biography, John Cougar, Nothin' Matters And What If It Did, American Fool, The Kid Inside, Uh-Huh, Scarecrow, The Lonesome Jubilee, Big Daddy, Whenever We Wanted, Human Wheels, Dance Naked, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, John Mellencamp, Rough Harvest, Cuttin' Heads, Trouble No More, and Freedom's Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Cougar Mellencamp.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Let Them Run Your Lives by John Cougar Mellencamp

The lyrics for Let Them Run Your Lives are defined as the words making up the song released by John Cougar Mellencamp in 1978. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Let Them Run Your Lives have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only John Cougar Mellencamp and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Let Them Run Your Lives by John Cougar Mellencamp if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Let Them Run Your Lives" means the words set to the music of Let Them Run Your Lives, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Cougar Mellencamp. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Let Them Run Your Lives and the lyrics to Let Them Run Your Lives are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Cougar Mellencamp who came here looking just for the lyrics to Let Them Run Your Lives, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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