Intro :
A cold wind against my shoulder w oke me up in the middle of the n ight
An a utumn leaf was scraping against my window
Like it was tryin' hard to get ins ide
And then a g host that I had met before he k ept me up till dawn
And e verything I thought was right was s uddenly all wrong
He said "your s core is looking pretty bad"
Then he asked me what it was that I had to s how
S o I went runnin' down a list of things
S ome were real but on some of them I l ied
'Cause I f elt I had to justify each breath that
I'd been breathin' in this life
Then I r ealized I was playing into s omeone else's rules
T ryin' to keep my score up in a g ame I did not choose
Then I l ooked that ghost straight in the eye and said
"You'd better not be coming back by a gain"
A nd it's true that I don't w ork near as hard
As you t ell me that I'm supposed to
I don't run as fast as I c ould
But I live just the way I w ant to
And that's the way I s hould
Instrumental:
O ctober's leaves were dancin' 'round
Like a ngels dressed in robes of red and g old
But N ovember's come and gone now
And they're lyin' in the gutter out along the r oad
They're gonna m ake their way out to the ditch or s omeday to the sea
But they'll g et to where they're goin' without the h elp of you or me
And if each l ife is just a grain of sand
I'm tellin' you man this grain of sand is m ine
A nd it's true that I don't w ork near as hard
As you t ell me that I'm supposed to
I don't run as fast as I c ould
But I live just the way I w ant to
And that's the way I s hould
But I live just the way I w ant to
And that's the way I s hould
...
