You're alone above the street somewhere
Wondering how you'll ever count out there
You can walk, you can talk, you can fight
But inside you've got something to write
In your hand you hold your only friend
Never spend your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen

When you take up a pencil and sharpen it up
When you kick in the fence and still nothing will budge
When the words are immobile until you sit down
Never feel they're worth keeping, they're not easily found
Then you know in some strange, unexplainable way
You must really have something...
Jumping...thumping...fighting...out of the way... Important to say!

When you sing through the verse
And you end in a scream
And you swear and you curse
'Cause the rhyming ain't clean
But it suddenly comes
After years of delay
You pick up your guitar
You can suddenly play
When your fingers are bleeding
And the knuckles are white
And you can be sure
You can open the door
Get off of the floor tonight...
You have something to write!

When you want to complain, there's no one can stop you
But when your music proclaims, there's no one can top you
You are wearing your heart on your
You've got a head-start away from the street

But is that what you want?
To be rich and be dumb?
Could be there's just one thing left in the end...
Your guitar and your pen!

When you sing to your mum
And you hum and you croon
And she says that she'd like it
"Wiv more of a tune"
And you smash your guitar at the end of the bed
Then you stick it together
Start writing again
Then you know that it won't be too long till you're back
To bring us some money...
She's calling you "honey"...
Stashed in a bloody great sack...
In your cadillac!

You're alone...
You're alone...
You're alone above the street somewhere
Wondering how you'll ever count out there
You can walk, you can talk, you can fight
But inside you've got something to write,br> In your hand you hold your only friend
Never spend your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen

Surrounded by people
A real heavy crowd
But inside I still feel lonely now
Should I get away from the high heels, so proud
Is there something different life can show me now?

First chance...
I blew it, I better start it all again
Second chance...
Ooh, I knew it wouldn't be as easy as they said
Third chance...
I'm cut up, life's like a razor's edge
Fourth chance...
I'm all shut up, and I'm standing on the ledge
Then I'm going down (Going down)
I'm going down (Going down)
Going down (Going down)
Ooh...down

I'm not a loser, but did I really win?
Can I afford to go through it all again?
I hope I don't sound as immature as I feel
But when I get wise, I'll give you a call my friend

First chance...
I blew it, I better start it all again
Second chance...
I knew it wouldn't be as easy as they said
Third chance...
I'm cut up, life's like a razor's edge
Fourth chance...
I'm all shut up, and I'm standing on the ledge
Now I'm going down (Going down)
Going down (Going down)
Going down (Going down)
Ooh...down

Love is coming down on me, ooh yeah
Love is burning, teaching, turning, out in me
Love is coming down, down
Down, down
Down. down...

I'm not a loser, but did I really win?
I'm looking forward to doing it all again

Note: A version of this song released on the 1996 reissue of Who Are You restores a lost second verse denoted by an asterisk below.

Who are you, who, who, who, who
Who are you, who, who, who, who
Who are you, who, who, who, who
Who are you, who, who, who, who

I woke up in a Soho doorway
A policeman knew my name.
He said, "You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away."
I staggered back to the Underground
And the breeze blew back my hair.
I remember throwing punched around
And preaching from my chair.

Well, who are you.
Who are you, who, who, who, who
I really wanna know
Who are you, who, who, who, who
Tell me, who are you
Who are you, who, who, who, who
'Cause I really wanna know
Who are you, who, who, who, who

I took the Tube back out of town
Back to the rolling pin.
I felt a little like a dying clown
But with a streak of Rin Tin Tin.
I stretched back and I hiccoughed
And looked back on my busy day.
Eleven hours in the Tin Pan
God, there's got to be another way.
*[I used to check my reflection
Jumping with my cheap guitar
I must've lost my direction
'Cause I ended up a superstar
One-nighters in the boardroom
Petrify the human freight(?)
You could learn from my mistakes
But you're posing in the glass again]

Well, who are you, etc.

I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees.
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees.
I spill out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss.
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?

Well, who are you, etc.