SCIENCE CLUB [INTRO — spoken over a single palm-muted chug, building] Congratulations, son. You've been selected. Special boy. Chosen boy. Eat — your — breakfast. (band crashes in) ⸻ [VERSE 1 — clean, clipped, staccato on the beat] Waltham morning, milk goes cold Eat it slow and do what you're told They picked me special, called it love Extra helpings, gift from above No one visits, no one calls White coats walking down the halls Measuring me, marking me down Best little club in the whole damn town [PRE-CHORUS — half-time, menace rising] Sign here — sign here — Just a nutrition study, nothing to fear Sign here — sign here — The word they left off, you'll never hear [CHORUS — full scream, wide open] BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, GLOWING IN THE BOWL QUAKER-FED SALVATION EATING THROUGH THE SOUL GOOD FOR YOU! MAKES YOU STRONG! SPOON IT DOWN, SWALLOW IT WHOLE — HALF-LIFE FOR BREAKFAST AND I ATE IT ALL ALONG ⸻ [VERSE 2 — same clipped delivery, faster underneath] Red Sox tickets if you're good Parties, presents, understood? Iron, calcium, count the trace Isotopes in a growing face Harvard clever, MIT proud Uncle Sam is paying loud We are the future, we are the test The ones nobody comes to see get fed the best [PRE-CHORUS] Sign here — sign here — Mama couldn't read it so the answer's clear Sign here — sign here — "Your boy's in the Science Club" — cheer, cheer, cheer [CHORUS] BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, GLOWING IN THE BOWL QUAKER-FED SALVATION EATING THROUGH THE SOUL GOOD FOR YOU! MAKES YOU STRONG! SPOON IT DOWN, SWALLOW IT WHOLE — HALF-LIFE FOR BREAKFAST AND I ATE IT ALL ALONG ⸻ [STACCATO BREAKDOWN — machine-gun SOAD delivery, palm-muted, no melody, spat out] Dose it — trace it — chart it — file it — Calcium forty-five, smile and dial it Feed it — read it — never spell it — Radioactive, better not tell it Tag the marrow, tag the bone Government grant, leave it alone Science, science, science, SCIENCE — Fed to the ones who can't give compliance! [HALF-TIME DROP — everything cuts to a clean guitar and two voices] (DOCTOR — calm, reasonable, almost kind) It's just a tracer. It's just a dose. The good to mankind — nobody's close. A hundred spoonfuls, who's to say what one small breakfast takes away. (KID — whisper, then climbing) I was six. I was seven. Told my club was the road to heaven. Nobody signed for me but her — and she didn't know. She didn't know what it were. (BOTH — overlapping, dragging the band back up) She didn't know — she didn't know — She couldn't read the word they wouldn't show — She didn't know — SHE DIDN'T KNOW — [FINAL CHORUS — double-time, unhinged, gang vocals on the caps] BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, GLOWING IN THE BOWL FIFTY YEARS OF SILENCE 'TIL THEY DUG IT FROM THE HOLE NOBODY HANGED! NOBODY WRONG! JUST A LITTLE SETTLEMENT AND EVERYBODY'S GONE — HALF-LIFE FOR BREAKFAST AND WE ATE IT ALL ALONG [OUTRO — band gone, the lullaby returns, single clean voice, fading] Eat your breakfast. Good boy. Eat your breakfast. ...count to three.
