[Intro] (a wry bouzouki and baglama figure over a honky-tonk piano shuffle, rebetiko guitar and pedal steel, upright bass and brushed drums, worldly and rueful, spring reverb) [Verse 1] (shuffling honky-tonk piano and upright bass under a wry vocal, bouzouki trilling, tape saturation) First semester cost me plenty, paid a smiling man in cash For a "sure thing" and a handshake and a business built on ash There's no bursar you can beg to, there's no money coming back Just a diploma made of nothing and a lesson you can't crack [Pre-Chorus] (bouzouki and pedal steel climbing, the shuffle leaning in) 'Cause the school of how-it-really-is don't take a check or plan You pay it in the only currency you actually can [Chorus] (close harmonies and honky-tonk piano bloom, bouzouki soaring, wry and warm) It's tuition, it's tuition Paid in trust and paid in years and paid in pride No refund and no honor roll, no letters after your name Just a wiser, poorer graduate of the thing that cost the same It's tuition, and you paid in full [Verse 2] (back to the shuffle, baglama and muted trumpet answering the vocal, pedal steel crying) Some lessons run you twenty bucks and some'll run you ten hard years Some you pay in one loud morning, some in slow and salty tears And the ones that cost the most, well, those're the ones you don't forget You can't unlearn a lesson that you're still paying off in debt [Pre-Chorus] (piano and bouzouki building) And nobody gets a scholarship, and nobody tests out clean Everybody's in the classroom, and the classroom's pretty mean [Chorus] (fuller, harmonies and bouzouki wide) It's tuition, it's tuition Paid in trust and paid in years and paid in pride No refund and no honor roll, no letters after your name Just a wiser, poorer graduate of the thing that cost the same It's tuition, and you paid in full [Bridge] (drops to bouzouki and hushed vocal and soft brushes, then a warm shuffling build) But here's the little mercy hiding underneath the bill You don't retake the courses that you actually paid to fill The man who sold me ashes, well, he can't sell me twice 'Cause I bought the whole curriculum, and I paid the asking price [Instrumental solo] (a dazzling bouzouki-and-pedal-steel solo trading virtuosic lines with honky-tonk piano and muted trumpet over the shuffle, building) [Final Chorus] (biggest lift, bouzouki and piano blazing, wry and warm) It's tuition, it's tuition And I'm not a freshman anymore, I've walked those halls a while I got no framed degree to show, no gown and no parade Just a hundred quiet lessons and the fortune that I paid It's tuition, and it made me who I am [Outro] (the bouzouki and honky-tonk piano ride the shuffle down, upright bass and brushes landing it, muted trumpet flourish, spring reverb trailing off)
