Hey there now young holy
Swing along, quote the scriptures
Keep them guessing which pit you crawled from

Just defy it, just deny it
Was it fun?
Your time has come
What have you done?
What have you done?

That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus
The machine of God singing

It's the poison that in measures
Brings illuminating vision
It's the knowing with a wink
That we expect in Southern women
It's the wolf that knows which root to dig to save itself
It's the octopus that crawled back to the sea

That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus
The machine of God ring!

Hammered, shooting plywood in the backyard
Laughing cause the racket makes the blackbirds sing
Write the holy terror
Suck the marrow from the bones
Singe your own wings burning books
You got the chorus and the ring

That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus
The machine sings

That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus
The machine sings

That's when the calibration brittle
As a stick gets you the gold ring
And the tar museum Che Guevara wink
Gold ring
Gold ring
Sing

Copyright: Universal Music Publishing Group
Writer(s): Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck