Break the Bars

[Verse 1] Sixties heat in the block Sirens bent the afternoon Marching feet on cracked-up pavement Bass drum dragging up the truth White hands called it noise and trouble Black hands called it ours to make Every scream became a signal Every break was a break [Pre-Chorus] We are not your boxes Not your bars Not your tidy little charts Say my name in the old tongue Let the new one crack apart [Chorus] Break the bars Break the bars We will not be measured Break the bars Break the bars Hear the streets come rushing through [Verse 2] Names got shed like dead skin Sun names, drum names, fire names Back to ancestors in the circle Nobody fronting for the frame The horn cried like the avenue When the batons dropped at dusk Pain was turned into a language No one bought and put in dust [Pre-Chorus] We are not your cages Not your schools Not your sealed-up little rules When the world goes nuclear We’ll still sound like molten roots [Chorus] Break the bars Break the bars We will not be measured Break the bars Break the bars Hear the streets come rushing through [Verse 3] While the kids chased colored halos And the moon became a dream We looked past the broken planet Built a starship out of steam Egypt in the cymbal shimmer Africa in every call If Earth was a burning prison Then the cosmos held us all [Bridge] No conductor No permission Just the circle keeping time One body Many tempers One cry climbing out the mine [Chorus] Break the bars Break the bars We will not be measured Break the bars Break the bars Hear the streets come rushing through [Outro] Free the noise Free the noise Let it burn Let it bloom Free the noise Free the noise Till the future fills the room