These songs by The Offspring tell stories most of people been through in life but only few of them can put it into such great lyrics.

dicography:

1989 "The Offspring"

1992 "Ingnition"

1994 "Smash"

1997 "Ixnay on Hombre"

1998 "Americana"

I'LL BE WAITING (1989)

Once I had a friend that I could count on

So I thought

Well so it seemed

But times of need are not enough

To prove your friendship to me now

Once I saw a face that I believed in

But a mask was all there was

So who wears the masks and who wears the faces

Well I guess I'll never know

But as I stand here alone in a room full of people

With nothing to say

Beer on their minds, and smoke in the air

Call them feiends but they just don't care

Friend for life

Such shallow words for broken minds

Show me a friend for life

Cause I'll be waiting for that day to arrive

When I'll feel alive

I'll be waiting for that day

Once I found a love I had to know

Now we might know each other just too well

Cause when we're together we just can't get enough

Or is it we just can't get what we want

Once I saw a dream, I had to chase it

Dreams quickly turn to reality

Who's at fault in this game of yours and mine

Well I guess I'll never know

But as I sit here alone

Think of the girl who came softly inside me

The look in her eyes, the smell of her hair

Call her my own but is she really there?

Love for life

Such noble words for noble minds

Show me a love for life

Cause I'll be waiting for that day to arrive

When I'll feel alive

I'll be waiting for that day

Once I had a friend that I could count

Times of need are not enough

Once I found a love I had to know

Now we might know each other just too well

Once I saw a dream I had to chase

Dreams quickly turn to reality

Now let me close my eyes

Because I don't want to see anything anymore

Beheaded (1989)

Mommy doesn't have a head any more

Keep it underneath my bed on the floor

Well that's alright, that's OK

She never really used her head anyway

Daddy called me a silly bore

Bet he won't say that any more

Because the way his body is severed too

His vocal chords are gonna be hard to use

Beheaded, watch you spurt like a garden hose

Beheaded, bloody mess all over my clothes

Watch my girl friend come to the door

Chop off her head, she falls to the floor

Now watching my baby's jugular blow

Really makes my motor go

Wrap a towel round the bloody stump

Take my baby's body to the city dump

Then wipe the mess off the bloody axe

Scoop all the heads into my burlap sack

Beheaded, watch her spurt like a garden hose

Beheaded, bloody mess all over my clothes

All my collection, adorns my room on bamboo poles

Use to be a little, but a little got more and more

Now I'm craving yours

Night brings bad dreams, bad dreams and guillotines

Off with her head

Off with her head

Off with her head

Off with her head

Off with her head

Off with her head

Find another victim for my machine

Put him in a home-made guillotine

Blade falls, gonna need a casket

Watch your head plop in a wicker basket

Leave the house at a quarter to four

Come back with sixteen or more

Cause the more I walk, the more I see

I got a funny feeling coming over me

Beheaded, watch you spurt like a garden hose

Beheaded, bloody mess all over my clothes

NO HERO (1992)

Once you said you'd stick to it until the end

I guess you lied, they call it suicide

Now you're gone

What was so wrong that you couldn't find a way to carry on?

Second guess

Did I do my best

There was a friend I had

Johnny was a weirdo

So what did you expect?

I ain't no fucking hero

I'm just trying to survive myself

I should have known you went through it alone

I wonder why did you even try?

You could have come to me

I would have helped you see

You could have found a way to carry on

Second guess

Did I do my best

There was a friend I had...

'Johnny's strange behavior was a tip-off,' they say

But I ain't no fucking savior

I'm just living day by day

Little things, little lives hanging 'til the end

I say it doesn't really mean nothing

Telling truth, telling lies

I used to have a friend

I say it don't really mean nothing

And I can't let this feeling go

Let this feeling go

Let this feeling go

HYPODERMIC (1992)

When you're feeling low

Hypodermic's where you go

When you're with yourself

You wish you could be someone else

Can't you see like you saw anymore

Can't you feel like you felt before

Can't you face anything anymore

When life's a waste

Run away

Your life's a waste

Run away

Once you get a ride

Doesn't matter where you lied

Once you shoot it in

Doesn't matter who you've been

You're reaching in but you don't know where to begin

All your dance and song won't matter when you're gone

NOTHING FROM SOMETHING (1992)

Things are coming down on me

They never seem to let it be

It seems like everything I say just starts another fight

The pressure's building up inside

I gotta let it out tonight

Shattered glass will cure my ills and make me feel alright

Gonna break it

And never stop running

Making nothing from something

Making nothing from something

Cut me for the lion's share

It's mindless, but I don't care

'Cause no matter what I say

I'm in another fight

Take more shit, I've had enough

Tonight I'm gonna rip it up

Broken windows cure my ills and make me feel alright

TAKE IT LIKE A MAN (1992)

When you won't go along

Some will feel like you can't find your way

Heaven knows

Heaven knows I've seen it all before

Now don't get me wrong

I've seen many a life gone astray

When someone goes

All your bows won't make it any better so let it go

Shut up and take it like a man

You need us to get a life

For your own good we'll take you by the hand

'Cause you need a little more

Maybe no one will say it

Maybe no one's aware it goes on

All I know

All I know it's like going off the deep end

Could you make a decision?

Could you think for yourself and go on?

Everyone knows

Everyone knows you've got to fit into the mainstream so save your woes

Close your eyes

Look away now

Make believe while you can

So you'd best go along

Don't let on if you can't find your way

Many more

Many more do it for you

Because heaven knows

Heaven knows it's like playing with fire

Your life's a throw

FOREVER AND A DAY (1992)

Look at me while I look at you

Seeing eye to eye we can never do

You try to tell me what is right

I may not know a lot but I know one thing

If you've got the answer

Then I don't want to know

If you've got the answer

Just keep it your own

I wonder why our world is ablaze

Sometimes I speak aloud to hear what people have to say

I try to have an open mind

But your brain and mouth must not be connected

If you've got the answer

Then I don't want to know

If you've got the answer

Just leave me alone

I would be patient but it takes so long

I don't want all this misinformation

All the words that you say

Lean on me while I lean on you

If we destroy each other

We might save a life or two

A little sun, a little shine

Separates us both by forever and a day

If you've got a vision

Then I don't want to see

If you've got a notion

Don't waste it on me

SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN (1994)

I believe that reality's gone

Disillusion's real

I believe that morality's gone

And there's nothing to feel

If you take the sacred things

The things that we hold dear

Empty promise is all you'll find

So give me something

Something to believe in

I believe in a changing of the guard

Put our feet on the ground

See it happen in your own background

Everything breaks down

Do you accept what you are told

Without even thinking

Throw it all and make your own

And give me something

Something to believe in

Where they lead

You will follow

Well I guess that's just the way it goes

And if you look away

You'll be doing what they say

And if you look alive

You'll be singled out and tried

If you take home anything

Let it be your will to think

The more cynical you become

The better off you'll be

GOTTA GET AWAY (1994)

I'm getting edgy all the time

There's someone around me just a step behind

It's kinda scary, the shape I'm in

The walls are shakin' and they're closing in

Too fast or a bit too slow

I'm paranoid of people and it's starting to show

There's one guy that I can't shake

Over my shoulder is a big mistake

Sitting on the bed

Or lying wide awake

There's demons in my head

And it's more than I can take

I think I'm on a roll

But I think it's kinda weak

Saying all I know is

I gotta get away from me

I tell you something just ain't right

My head is on loose but my shoes are tight

Avoiding my friends cause they all bug

Life is a riddle and I'm really stumped

If you reason, don't you know

Your own preoccupation is where you'll go

I think I'm being followed, I look around

It's only my shadow creepin' on the ground

GENOCIDE (1994)

Our lives run different ways

Through the rain I see you in the sun

Our star shines anyway

If you wish upon it we are one

Dog eat dog

To get by

Hope you like my genocide

I find it such a shame

Through the pain I see things as they are

We're served up on a plate

The pedestal is high enough to fall

And if in time

We can see the errors of our ways

Would anyone change it anyhow

Our time is up

I bet you'd only run

If you saw what goes inside our own

I bet you'd lead the way

If it were up to you to decide

But it's not

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? (1994)

Before you started tokin'

You used to have a brain

But now you don't get even the simplest of things

I can draw a little picture

Or even use my hands

I try to explain but you just don't understand

Man you're really losin' it

And you've really done a lot of junk now

But you keep abusin' it

What in the world happened to you

It's bad enough you do it to yourself

But taking someone with you well you know that's something else

I say I'm not that kind of person

I'm not that kind of man

I try to explain but you just don't understand

I might be sympathetic or cut a little slack

If I thought that you were willing to give a little back

But you do it in the morning

You do it in the night

You lie to refrain from just facing your life

So I'll see you man tomorrow

You'll be gackin' up again

I'll see you in a coffin by the time your wad is spent

I think of all the times that I tried to lend a hand

I try to explain but you just don't understand

SO ALONE (1994)

Look at the crowd and tell me whether

All are surrounded

But none are together

If you're awake, look all around

At all of the people

Still you're so alone

So alone

If I could, I'd make a suggestion

Without sounding preachy

Or begging the question

Melt with your minds

Melt with each other

Don't be surrounded

Don't be so alone

KICK HIM WHEN HE'S DOWN (1994)

'Hey, you're a riddle',

I say as I move aside

(Like I really need your advice)

But you won't leave it alone

Little men try but don't get a lot done

Living in sin doesn't move me either way

I get a feeling you're so vague

Like I said before

Little men come when anything goes

When the rain comes I sit home and pray

Make it all numb

I wish it all away

All I really need is just somewhere to hide away

Kick him when he's down

Here alone I'll put up and fight

Kick him when he's down

Beat me all the way I'll take it all night

Kick him when he's down

Hey, don't worry, I'll get along home alright

Hey, everybody's supposed to be the same

So how come they're so lame?

It's like taking a fall

Keep on running back into that wall

Awake in a dream, get up and go to work

But I'm feeling like such a jerk

Like I said before

Little men come when everything goes

'Hey, you're a riddle' I say as I move aside

(Like I really need your advice)

But you won't leave it alone

Little men try but don't get a lot done

Living in sin doesn't move me either way

I get a feeling you're so vague

Like I said before

Little men come when anything goes

MEANING OF LIFE (1997)

On the way

Trying to get where I'd like to stay

I'm always feel steered away

By someone trying to tell me

What to say or do

I don't want it

I gotta find my own way

I gotta go make my own mistakes

Sorry man for feeling

Feeling the way I do

Oh yeah

Open wide and they'll shove in

Their meaning of life

Oh yeah

But not for me I'll do it on my own

Oh yeah

Open wide and swallow their meaning of life

I can't make it work your way

Thanks but no thanks

By the way

I know your path has been tried and so

It may seem like the way to go

Me, I'd rather be found

Trying something new

And the bottom line

In all of this seems to say

There's no right or wrong way

Sorry if don't feel like

Living the way you do

I CHOOSE (1997)

Look at me I'm fallin'

Off a cliff now

I can still hear my mama yelling no no no

But words mean nothing

Can't catch up to me now

And the view is so beautiful

All the way down

When I was a little boy

Suckin' juice from a bottle

Believing my perceptions were oh so real

But I didn't know nothing

Still knowing nothing

Was just enough for me to know the way I feel

This is life

What a fuck up things we do

What a nightmare come true

Or a playground if we choose

And I choose

Look at me I'm swollen

Like Banana Fish now

I'm never gonna make it out of my hole

But I keep on laughing

Doesn't really matter

There's dozens of reasons for explaining my soul

When I was teenager

Suckin' booze with the Vatos

Discussing who is gonna live to be 21

They said they wouldn't make it

They didn't make it

We all naked when the day is said and done

This is life

What a fuck up things we do

What a nightmare come true

Or a playground if we choose

And I choose

Don't know who made it all come true

But now while you're here

you just gotta do what you gotta do

Now if I wasn't such a weenie

Do you think you'd still love me

Pretending I'm an areoplane on the living room floor

But like a lovely generator

You stand right by me

And if words were wisdom I'd be talking even more

So I keep on falling

As I'm looking back above me

Watching as my mama just becomes a little dot

Now I'm like Deniro

I'm amarillo

And I'll never know when I hit ground

ALL I WANT (1997)

Day after day your homelife's a wreck

The powers that be just

Breathe down your neck

You get no respect

You get no belief

You gotta speak up

And yell out your peace

So back off your rules

Back off your jive

'Cause I'm sick of not living

To stay alive

Leave me alone

I'm not asking a lot

I just don't want to be controlled

That's all I want

All I want

How man times is it gonna take

Till someone around you hears what you say

You've tried beeing cool

You feel like a lie

You've played by their rules

Now it's their turn to try

So back off your rules

Back off your jive

'Cause 'm sick of not living

To stay alive

Leave me alone

I'm not asking a lot

I just don't want to be controlled

That's all I want

All I want

I said it before

I'll say it again

If you could just listen

Then it might make sense

AMAZED (1997)

Sometimes I think I'm gonna drown

'Cause everyone around's so hollow

I'm alone

Sometimes I think I'm going down

But no one makes a sound

They follow

And I'm alone

Yeah if I make it I'd be amazed

Just to see tomorrow

One more day and I'd be amazed

Just to see it waiting

And if I make it I'm still alone

No more hope for better days

But if I could change

Then I'd be really amazed

And when you know you can't relate

To one more shiny face

Your heart breakes

No one cares

And when you know you can't go on

'Cause everything is wrong

Your heart breaks

But no one's there

GONE AWAY (1997)

Maybe in another life

I could find you there

Pulled away before your time

I can't deal it's so unfair

And it feels

Yeah it feels like

Heaven's so far away

And it feels

Yeah it feels like

The world has gone cold

Now that you've gone away

Leaving flowers on your grave

Show that I still care

But black roses and hail marys

Can't bring back what's taken from me

I reach to the sky

And call out your name

And if I could trade

I would

And it feels

Yeah it feels like

Heaven's os far away

And it stings

Yeah it stings now

The world is so cold

Now that you've gone away

THE END OF LINE (1998)

When the siren's flash is gone

And we're left to carry on

All the memories are too few

When the pastor's music plays

And that casket rolls away

I could live again if you

Just stay alive for me

Please stay now, you left me here alone - it's the end of the line

Please stay I can't make it on my own - it's the end of the line

Make it on my own

It's the end of the line

Now that you are dead and gone

And I'm left to carry on

I could never smile cause you

Won't stay alive for me

Finally,

Your final resting day

Is without me

I weep

And think of brighter days

What about me?

You can't take back, the one mistake

That still lives on after life it takes

In that one day, that changed our lives

And bitter memories are left behind

FEELINGS (1998)

Feelings

Nothing more than feelings

Trying to forget my

Feelings of hate

Imagine

Beating on your face

Trying to forget my

Feelings of hate

Feelings

For all my life I'll feel it

I wish I'd never met you

You'll make me sick again

Feelings, oh oh feelings

Of hate on my mind

Feelings

Feelings like I never liked you

Feelings like I want to kill you

Live in my heart

Feelings

Feelings like I wanna deck you

Feelings like I've gotta get you

Out of my life

Feelings, oh oh feelings

The hate's in my eyes

Feelings, oh oh feelings

You're not very nice

HAVE YOU EVER (1998)

Falling, I'm falling

Have you ever walked through a room

But it was more like the room passed around you

Like there was a leash around your neck that pulled you through

Have you ever been at someplace

Recognizing everybody's face

Until you realized that there was no one there you knew

Well I know

Some days, my soul's confined and out of mind

Sleep forever

Some days, I'm so outshined and out of time

Have you ever

Falling, I'm falling

Have you ever buried your face in your hands

Cause no one around you understands

Or has the slightest idea what it is that makes you be

Have you ever felt like there was more

Like someone else was keeping score

And what could make you whole was simply out of reach

Well I know

Someday I'll try again and not pretend

This time forever

Someday I'll get it straight but not today

Have you ever

Falling, I'm falling

Some days, my soul's confined and out of mind

Sleep forever

Some days, my darkest friend is me again

Have you ever Someday I'll try again and not pretend

This time forever

Someday I'll get it straight but not today

Have you ever

When the truth walks away

Everybody stay

Cause the truth about the world is that crime does pay

So if you walk away

Who is gonna stay

Cause I'd like to think the world is a better place

When the truth walks away

Everybody stays

Cause the truth about the world is that crime does pay

So if you walk away

Who is gonna stay

Cause I'd like to make the world be a better place

When the truth walks away

Everybody stays

Cause the truth about the world is that crime does pay

So if you walk away

Who is gonna stay

Cause I'd like to think the world is a better place

I'd like to leave the world as a better place

I'd like to think the world

NO BRAKES (1998)

Lay awake

I don't give a shit

If I even ever wake up in the morning

Down below

There's a pile of sin

Always waiting for a

Waiting for a warning

Burned at the stake

Inside I'm blistering

Not a whisper

Looking in you'd never know it

Miles below

I look up again

When you snap they say

Before you never show it

Someone said it's all right

Save it now, don't say it for my sake

Someone said it's all right

Faster now, you know I got no brakes

Fuses glow

Wounds festering

Till the wind comes up

And takes it to the last pow

Back and forth

Staring at the wall

This room's a cage

I know that something's got to give now

Someone said it's all right

Save it now, don't say it for my sake

Someone said it's all right

Faster now, you know I got no brakes

No brakes

PAY THE MAN (1998)

See the way the wind blows

Lives are intertwined

Watch the way the world goes

The man deals out our plight

Jester in the corner

Laughs without a sound

Jester in the corner

Malady abounds

In our souls

See the way the sun sets

Twilight of this life

The man is making little bets

Playing with our lives

All that I believe now

Anything is possible

A simple explanation

For the evil in this world

And in our souls

In our souls

Come down to sorry and sable

It's always the man

Always keeping you down

Bow down cause I see it before me

Shadow and light

That always keeps you running

Shut up you talk too much

Pay the man

Shut up you talk too much

Look at you and your struggle for freedom

But you ain't nothing

We all pay the man for living

Wouldn't it be nice for a change now

To be unchained

My life is for me now

But this is life

Pay the man

Shut up you talk too much

Pay the man

Shut up you talk too much

Pay the man

STARING AT THE SUN (1998)

Maybe life is like a ride on a freeway

Dodging bullets while you're trying to find your way

Everyone's around, but no one does a damn thing

It brings me down, but I won't let them

If I seem bleak

Well you'd be correct

And if I don't speak

It's cause I can't disconnect

But I won't be burned by the reflection

Of the fire in your eyes

As you're staring at the sun

When I ran I didn't feel like a runaway

When I escaped I didn't feel like I got away

There's more to living than only surviving

Maybe I'm not there, but I'm still trying

Though you hear me

I don't think that you relate

My will is something

That you can't confiscate

So forgive me, but I won't be frustrated

By destruction in your eyes

As you're staring at the sun