10,000 Cigarettes from Hold Person by Schaffer, Riley, and the Double Ice Backfire

Got in my time machine, and I departed
That's right, I got a time machine, it fits inside of my apartment
It only works for me and goes as far as 20 years back
Only into the past, I don't remember when I started

My TV and remote are its controls, and there is
A dirty purple couch that serves as its command chair, and
All these old Hi-8 tapes I pump into its fuel lines
I watch them chain-smoking as I travel through time

While I was playing hero, in 1999
The angel sent for me was swallowed up by time
Ten thousand cigarettes, I dedicate your name

But the future refused to change

And so I set a course for 1996 again
And visit my old bands, my college roommates and friends
This time around though I know where all these bros will go
So young and hungry then, that was like a thousand shows ago

And next I check in with an ex in '98
Try not to think of how it ends as I rewind the tape
In Y2K I find the day I fly away, I try to say
Just wait, it's a mistake, but I can't, this isn't my today

On to the dark of time - no future and no past
Hold on to memories I know that cannot last
Time scars and falling stars commemorate our reign

But the future refused to change

In 2004 a brand new city puts excitement on my face
That guy doesn’t know the toll upon his soul that it will take
In '06 I listen to the vows I know I'll never keep
In '08 I'm blowing up though I've nearly reached my peak

In '10, '11, '12 I laugh with pals that will be gone
In '13 can't un-start the final fight had with my mom
I travel back a year and find there's nothing there to miss
Because by then I'd traded making memories for doing this

And nothing's been prevented
Each visit's more unpleasant
“Great scott!” exclaims the doc as I explain I guess I get it
I live in that past because I'm dead in this present

Surrounded by the ghosts of my regrets but otherwise alone
Echoes of a life inside of boxes that I call a home
Every time I exit the machine, it's all the same
Just an overflowing ashtray, a future which remains

Alone I sat and thought of worlds that could have been
She turns to tell me we were only kids back then
Time stop and paradox; I’ll never be the same

But the future refused to change

Ten thousand cigarettes

• Hip Hop
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• Rap
• chiptunes
• indie rock
• nerdcore
• United States